Raising pressure ahead of the next round of talks at the Nuclear Suppliers Group, China’s top newspaper has called the India-US nuclear agreement a major blow to non-proliferation. The commentary today in People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official paper, was a rare public response from Beijing on the deal.

Diplomats in Vienna said that a revised US proposal to lift the ban did not sufficiently ease fears the move could compromise efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. India needs an unprecedented NSG exemption to seal the deal. Chinese officials have given no sign they would outright block the deal but People’s Daily was unusually forthright: “Whether it is motivated by geopolitical considerations or commercial interests, the US-India nuclear agreement has constituted a major blow to the international non-proliferation regime,” said the commentary by a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state think tank.

Experts say China is unlikely to stymie the deal and risk pushing New Delhi closer to Washington when Beijing is seeking to avoid confrontation with India. China was not among those that raised objections in the NSG but the commentary’s a reminder that Beijing is irked by the agreement. The US proposal to the NSG was vague, the paper said.