Beijing: China termed Thursday as ‘nonsense’ a senior US diplomat’s remarks blaming it for using constant aggression on the border with India to try to change the status quo. Beijing said consultations were going on through diplomatic channels between the two countries which has ‘nothing to do’ with Washington.
Responding to a question on the flare-up of border tensions between India and China, Alice G Wells, the senior US diplomat for South and Central Asia, described Beijing’s aggression Wednesday as ‘not always rhetorical’ and accused it of continuing with its ‘provocative and disturbing behaviour’ to try to shift the status quo.
“There’s a method here to Chinese operations. It is that constant aggression, the constant attempt to shift the norms, to shift what is the status quo. It has to be resisted,” Wells told the Atlantic Council think-tank at an event Wednesday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that China’s position on China-India boundary issue had been consistent and clear.
The US ‘diplomat’s remarks are just nonsense,” Zhao said when asked about Wells’ comments.
“China’s border troops firmly safeguard China’s territorial sovereignty and security, and firmly deals with the Indian side’s crossover and infringement activities,’ Zhao said.
“We urge the Indian side to work together with us, abide by our leadership’s important consensus, comply with the agreements signed, refrain from unilateral actions complicating the situation,” added Zhao.
“We hope they 9India) will make concrete efforts for peace and tranquility in the border region. There are consultations and diplomatic channels between the two sides that have nothing to do with USA,” Zhao further stated.
Around 250 Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed May 5 with iron rods, sticks, and even resorted to stone-pelting in the Pangong Tso lake area in which soldiers on both sides sustained injuries.
In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector, May 9. At least 10 soldiers from both sides sustained injuries in the incident, according to sources.
The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the two countries. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it.
PTI
