Beijing July 24,( TNS): amid an ongoing standoff between the two neighbors over a contested region high in the Himalaya,. China has warned India not to “push its luck” by underestimating Beijing’s determination to safeguard what it considers sovereign Chinese territory.
Col. Wu Qian, Defense ministry spokesman on Monday reiterated China’s demand that Indian troops pull back from the Doklam Plateau, an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan where Chinese teams had been building a road toward India’s border.
Wu said that China’s determination and resolve to safeguard national security and sovereignty is unshakable. Speaking at a news conference to mark the upcoming 90th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, he said: “Here is a wish to remind India, do not push your luck and cling to any fantasies.” “
He said that the 90-year history of the PLA has proved but one thing: that our military means to secure our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity has strengthened and our determination has never wavered. It is easier to shake a mountain than to shake the PLA.
While the sides have exercised restraint thus far, heated rhetoric in both Beijing and New Delhi has raised concern over a renewal of hostilities that resulted in a brief but bloody frontier war between the sides in 1962. The nuclear-armed neighbors share a 3,500-kilometer (2,174-mile) border, much of it contested.
Crisis is expected to be discussed when Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visits Beijing at the end of this week for a security forum under the BRICS group of large developing nations that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
