Amid its aggression, China first places full-page ads in The Hindu and Business Line that aren't marked as ads but designed to pass off as the dailies' own news articles. Then China's embassy shows them on its site as Indian media’s special page on China. http://in.china-embassy.org/eng/embassy_news/t1821123.htm

The same thing happened when PRC-paid "special pages" appeared in these two dailies on April 1. Such ads completely blur the line between the newspapers’ own coverage and paid propaganda. It's past time that Indian media frame code of ethics and set up self-regulation mechanisms.

To be sure, PRC-paid propaganda in newspapers that deceptively looks like news articles is a problem extending beyond India. Through such inserts, the CPC funds select foreign dailies, seeking to influence their editorial positions. To what extent it succeeds is a moot question.