- Sunday, April 28, 2024
China recently expressed dissatisfaction over Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the north-eastern state.
By: Shubham Ghosh
CHINA reacted sharply to the US on Thursday (21) over the latter’s recognition of the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of India and affirmed that Washington had nothing to do with the border dispute between Beijing and New Delhi.
It also accused the US of “instigating and using other countries’ disputes” for selfish geopolitical interests. China’s strong reaction came hours after US state department’s principal deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel’s remarks that the US “recognises Arunachal Pradesh as Indian territory”.
“We (the US) strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments, military or civilian, across the Line of Actual Control,” he said.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian opposed the American official’s statement during a media briefing in Beijing while replying to a question posed by the official Chinese media.
“China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this,” he said.
The delimitation of the China-India boundary has not been completed, Lin said adding, “‘Zangnan’ (the official Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh) has always been China’s territory. This is an undeniable basic fact.”
He added, “The question of the China-India border issue is between China and India and it has nothing to do with the US.”
The US official’s words on Arunachal Pradesh came days after the Chinese military reiterated its claim over the Indian state following a visit by prime minister Narendra Modi there earlier this month.
China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet, routinely objects to Indian leaders’ visits to the state to highlight its claims.
Read: India slams China for protesting Modi visit to Arunachal: ‘Doesn’t stand to reason’
On March 9, Modi dedicated to the nation the Sela Tunnel built at an altitude of 13,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh that will provide all-weather connectivity to strategically located Tawang and is expected to ensure better movement of troops along the frontier region.
Speaking at his daily press conference in Washington on Wednesday (20), the US state department’s principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said, “The United States recognises Arunachal Pradesh as Indian territory and we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments, military or civilian, across the Line of Actual Control.”
India has repeatedly rejected China’s territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country.
New Delhi has also dismissed Beijing’s move to assign “invented” names to the area, saying it did not alter the reality. India’s ministry of external affairs on Tuesday (19) said it has noted the latest comments made by the spokesperson of the Chinese defence ministry “advancing absurd claims” over the territory of Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that the state “was, is and will always be” an integral and inalienable part of India.
Earlier this week, Chinese defence ministry spokesman senior colonel Zhang Xiaogang said that the southern part of Xizang (the Chinese name for Tibet) is an inherent part of China’s territory, and Beijing “never acknowledges and firmly opposes” the “so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally established by India”.
In Beijing, in response to a question by a state-run media outlet on the US backing India on the issue of Arunachal Pradesh, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this. “The China-India boundary has never been delimited. Zangnan is China’s territory, a basic fact that is undeniable,” spokesperson Lin Jian said on Thursday.
(With PTI inputs)
