PEKING, Reuter: Indian Embassy officials said that they were surprised at a long Chinese statement accusing India of violating their disputed common border.
One official told Reuters there was no apparent reason for the timing of the New China News agency’s criticism.
The China Daily Today ran in full the agency’s text, which accused the Indian troops of penetrating beyond the line of actual control along the frontier to nibble away the Chinese territory and create new areas of dispute.
The statement said that the Indian side had crossed the control line during intervals in Chinese patrolling of the border area. It said repeated crossing of the control line by the Indian aircraft and troops had continued over the years and promised that the Chinese side will not let this go unchecked.
The Indian official said that nothing had happened to justify the Chinese remarks since the last. Inconclusive round of Sino-Indian border talks in Peking last month.
Each side is aware of the others position. To preserve tranquility and avoid incidents, we have asked the Chinese to define where the line of control lies but they have refused to do this, he said. The two countries fought a war in 1962 over their boundary dispute, China maintains that 90(000 sq. km (35,600 square miles) of its territory is now under Indian Occupation.
The Chinese statement said that their side was abiding by the extremely unreasonable line of actual control on the border pending a negotiated settlement.
The Indian official said the Chinese statement had exaggerated the extent of recent accusations by Indian politicians and newspapers about alleged Chinese violations of the border in the Sumdhu Valley area east of Bhutan.
India has said that China built helicopter landing pad on disputed land there.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 29, 1986
