The latest comments from the Chinese Foreign Ministry have not gone down well by their Indian counterparts. The Chinese side said that it did not recognize the creation of Ladakh as a Union Territory. This was vociferously denounced by India, and New Delhi suggested that countries should refrain from commenting on other country’s internal matters if they expect others not to comment on theirs.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, “China has always opposed India’s inclusion of Chinese territory in India’s administrative jurisdiction in the western part of the Sino-Indian border. This position is firm, consistent and has never changed.” These comments saw the strongest rebuttal till date. The Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Anurag Shrivastava said that China had “no locus standi to comment on India’s internal matters,” adding, “We hope that countries will not comment on India’s internal matters, as much as they expect the same of others.”
These replies from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (EAM) to the Chinese must have come as a surprise to Beijing. The Indian side has also said that they do not recognize the Chinese defined 1959 Line of Actual Control.
If one combines these two recent arguments and rebuttals to Communist China by India, it is very clear that New Delhi has had enough of trying to talk things out with China. The Indian side outrightly denied the legitimacy of Chinese defied 1959 LAC, clearly telling Beijing that Aksai Chin is part of Indian territory in illegal occupation of Chinese Communist regime.
Chinese have a long history of taking steps to solidify their claims on Indian Territories of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. In a recent event, 4 youth from the upper regions of Arunachal Pradesh were abducted by the PLA troops and were returned by PLA only after some deliberations, even before a man was abducted by the PLA and released only after 19 days of confinement.
All these actions by the Chinese PLA are to display their upper hand and their capacity in the region while claiming Arunachal Pradesh as part of Chinese Territory. India has always countered this argument by making it clear that the region is an integral part of India and its people area proud Indian citizen.
Successive Indian governments thought that these issues will die out as the two countries become economically more interconnected. However, Chinese aggression is on a rise since the Doklam crisis and with the death of 20 Indian soldiers at Galwan Valley, Beijing crossed all lines.
PM Modi has now resolutely moved away from any attempt for improving relations with China without any reciprocity in the approach. India has time and again been the saner power with making attempts to reconcile differences and work for the prosperity of the people of each country. The worldview of India in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in particular, has been of the Ancient Indian Philosophy of ‘the world is a family (kutumbh)’. Even with all the chances he gave Xi Jinping to understand the idea and work for the betterment of Humanity, Communist China turned out to be a selfish bully which looks out for itself on the expense of the whole world.
Thus, India is no longer willing to show one-sided restrain in language. The repeated attempts by Beijing to meddle in the internal affairs of India be it by making unnecessary comments on Article 370 abrogation, influencing Indian Media and narrative by money power, claiming Indian Territories have gone too far.
New Delhi has made it clear that if one thinks that they can get away with infringing on a nation’s sovereignty and making comments on the internal affairs of the same, then they are mistaken. India will reciprocate in kind, and with all the Human Rights violations, unilateral attempts to change the status of its autonomous territories, India has too much fuel at hand to burn China by meddling in its internal affairs.
India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson made it aptly clear that if Beijing did not stop with its interference in India’s internal affairs, India can and will reciprocate by raising the issues related to Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, Outer Mongolia as well as Taiwan. And when it happens, there is no going back. So China better thinks twice before making irresponsible statements.