Srinagar: Criticising China over the recent flare-up with India in Ladakh, the United States has said that the emergence of a clear pattern of Beijing “acting increasingly aggressively, both domestically and abroad, is disturbing.”
Stating that it keeps an eye on India-China border, a spokesperson to the US State Department, said that it is expecting the matter to “settle down peacefully”.
The US State Department, according to a report published by a Delhi based news organisation Times Now, believes that the Chinese Communist Party is “tormenting its own people and bullying its neighbors.”
“From Taiwan Strait to Xinjiang, the South China Sea to the Himalayas, cyberspace to international organisations, we are dealing with the Chinese Communist Party that seeks to repress its own people and bully its neighbours. The only way to stop these provocations is by standing up to Beijing,” the report quoted US spokesperson as having said.
Earlier China, in a yet another move, demanded India to withdraw its armed forces personnel from China-India border in order to avoid escalation of tensions.
The move came after India said that fresh “provocative” military movements were made by Chinese army.
China later reportedly built a surface-to-air missile near a lake, which is a part of the Kailash-Mansarovar.
On August, 31, Indian army informed that Chinese troops “carried out provocative military movements to change the status quo” near Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh, on Saturday night and they were blocked by the Indian armed forces personnel manning the area, the government said.
A Brigade Commander level Flag Meeting was later held at Chushul to resolve the issues, as per the Government of India situation update.
The major flare-up, according to the reports, took place on the south bank of the Pangong Tso, which is of huge significance as no clashes have been reported here earlier.
The statement added that Indian Army is committed to maintaining peace and tranquillity through dialogue, but is also equally determined to protect its territorial integrity.
In Ladakh China has established high speed connectivity, including the setting up of 5G network near Demchok and fresh constructions at the Pangong Lake.
As New Delhi claims that both India and China will “continue to sincerely work towards complete disengagement” of armed forces personnel, talks aimed at resolving the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, has so far yielded no results.
A Chinese diplomat reacting to the standoff in Ladakh has said that the move is linked to the Indian government’s unilateral decision to scrap Article 370 in August last year.
The move changed the laws that prohibited Indians from buying land in Kashmir, and made the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir defunct, triggering fears of demographic change in the Muslim majority region of Kashmir.
When India scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5 last year, the Chinese foreign ministry had issued two statements criticising the development, including one that focused on the splitting of the state into union territories.
This statement, while urging India to be “cautious” on the border issue and to avoid “actions that further complicate the border issue”, 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 was a reference to the area in Ladakh that New Delhi claims but is controlled by Beijing.
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