The covers of the India Today magazine have always been iconic, ingenious and often controversial.

The cover of the July 31 issue of the India Today magazine has gone viral on Chinese social media platform Wiebo, the country's substitute for Twitter, and the Chinese are not pleased with the cover.

The latest issue of the India Today magazine has the map of China, in red, in the shape of a big chicken and a smaller chick -- Pakistan, in green -- by its side, along with captions that read "China's new chick" and "How China is buying out Pakistan with massive new investments and why India needs to worry", below it.

India Today magazine July 20 issue cover that has gone viral in China India Today magazine July 20 issue cover that has gone viral in China

The Chinese are fuming seeing the cover. Their main contention is that the map on the cover doesn't show Tibet and Taiwan as its part. In retaliation, there are op-eds, sharply criticising the magazine and India as a whole, being written on Chinese newspapers, and Chinese social media users Photoshopping their answers on to India Today magazine covers.

.@IndiaToday cover (left) goes viral on Weibo, GT ed Hu Xijin puts out video attacking it, & Chinese users post mockup in revenge (right) pic.twitter.com/FBfTNdl5yy - Ananth Krishnan (@ananthkrishnan) July 27, 2017

All this while there is a tense standoff between the Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam.

Meanwhile, the India Today magazine cover on China and Pakistan's growing friendship has been selected as the 'The Cover of the Day' by The Society of Publication Designers (SPD), New York. Ashish Bagga, Group CEO, India Today Group, said, "Getting featured in SPD, New York, reflects on India Today's commitment to set international standards in journalism. Powerful take on pertinent issues is the hallmark of impactful reportage and insights. For India Today, we are happy that we have serviced the Thinking Indian well."

An article on China's Global Times said, "Such hysterical geopolitical imagination is nothing new. What is new, however, is the erroneous exclusion of Tibet and Taiwan from Chinese territory."

It also said, "China and India are currently locked in a border standoff. Some Indian elites understandably hate China and want to carve away Tibet and Taiwan. But they know this is an impossibility, so they are reduced to drawing an illustration. It is more ludicrous when the magazine proudly proclaimed that the cover was selected as the "The Cover of the Day" by the Society of Publication Designers, New York."

A report in the South China Morning Post read, "But Chinese netizens griped over the exclusion of Taiwan and Tibet from China's map. The Chinese government claims sovereignty over both places, considering Taiwan a renegade province and Tibet an autonomous region, but there are long-standing political tensions over the government's control of these areas."

The Taiwan News, a Taiwanese news outlet, however, welcomed India Today's cover. A report said, "In a bizarre reversal of fortune, instead of the usual erroneous inclusion of Taiwan in a map of China, the cover of the latest issue of the magazine India Today, not only excludes Taiwan from Chinese territory, but it also carved away Tibet from its posterior, while a tiny green chick in the shape of Pakistan stands behind it."

The outlet also included comments of Taiwanese netizens, who were glad to see the new map. Sample these:

"This is the correct version of the map."

"India has finally done a positive thing that the world can look up to."

"China really gets worked up if there's no Taiwan."

"Come and eat Indian curry today."

"That's a good cover, why not buy one?"

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