BEIJING, China: China described as utterly irresponsible and groundless India’s recent assertion that Pakistan has surrendered a part of Kashmir claimed by them as Indian Territory to China.

A spokesman of Chinese Foreign Ministry told the weekly press briefing that it was a well-known fact that China and Pakistan had settled the border issue in 1963 through friendly consultations. China and Pakistan, he said, were sovereign nations and as such were fully competent to do so. No other country had any right to interfere in their internal affairs. He added that boundary demarcation had nothing to do with the status and ownership of Kashmir.

The spokesman said that personnel changes in the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party would not affect in any way the internal and external policies of China. He said that the open door policy would remain unchanged and foreign investment would continue to be welcomed.

He was answering a question whether the resignation of Secretary-general of CPC would have any effect on China’s open door policy.

To another question, the spokesman said that the first round of border talks between China and the Soviet Union would begin in Moscow from Feb. 9 as per agreement reached last year.

He said that over the past year, trade and economic relations between the two countries had no doubt increased but there had been no substantive improvement in political relations.

The spokesman said that the Chinese government had taken note of the Soviet announcement on the withdrawal of some of its troops from Mongolia. He pointed out that key to normalization of Sino Soviet relations lay in the removal of three main obstacles. These included withdrawal of Soviet support to Kampuchea and Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

About escalation of IranIraq war, he said that China was deeply concerned as it was not only causing colossal human and material loss to the two countries but also aggravating tension in the Gulf region. China sincerely hopes that the war should be brought to an end at the earliest.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 6, 1987