India to blame for fresh border tensions: China
ISTANBUL (AA) – The Chinese military has blamed India for fresh border tensions, accusing Indian troops of “illegally” crossing the disputed border in what Beijing identified as the Dongzhang area.
Colonel Long Shaohua, a spokesperson for the Western Theater of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), alleged that its “routine patrol was blocked by the Indian army illegally crossing the line” in the Dongzhang area.
The statement comes after India claimed the Chinese military had tried to “unilaterally change the status quo” at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between the two countries, in the South Asian nation’s northeastern province of Arunachal Pradesh.
Long said the border issue should be “dealt with professionally and effectively,” calling for stabilization of the situation on the ground.
“At present, China and India have disengaged. We ask the Indian side to strictly control and restrain the front-line troops, and work with China to maintain peace and tranquility on the border,” Long said in a statement.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh had told the country’s parliament that on December 9, Chinese soldiers tried to “transgress the LAC in Yangtse area of Tawang” in Arunachal Pradesh, and the Chinese attempt was contested by Indian troops in a “firm and resolute manner.”
Singh said the ensuing faceoff led to a physical scuffle, in which the Indian army “bravely prevented the PLA from transgressing into our territory and compelled them to return to their posts.”
The incident marked the first major clash between the two militaries since June 2020, when at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a clash at the LAC in the high-altitude Ladakh region of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.
Most of Kashmir is under Indian occupation, and the country claims it in full. The people of the Indian occupied territory have been denied their right of self-determination since the independence and partition of India in 1947.
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