On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry said, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and former Army Chief, Gen. V.K. Singh (retd), had made an “unwitting confession” by saying India had transgressed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on more occasions than China had.
Speaking on Sunday, Gen. Singh said the border had never been demarcated, and while China had transgressed across the LAC up to its perception, India had done the same but the government did not announce it, reported The Hindu.
“Similarly, none of you come to know how many times we have transgressed as per our perception. Chinese media does not cover it,” he said. “Let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have done it at least 50 times.”
The Union minister said that when China crossed in eastern Ladakh in 2020, India had responded with equal measures, and that the situation was “very well under control”. “Today, China is under pressure, since we are sitting at places [along the border], where it does not like,” he added. “China has realised that it was not easy anymore to hit back at India.”
Singh added that China knows that India will give a fitting reply, if something goes wrong on the border, according to The Times of India. The minister said India had hit Beijing economically by banning its apps and boycotting its goods. “All these affect them,” he added.
On Sunday, VK Singh had alao said that the Line of Actual Control between India and China is not clearly demarcated.
The Chinese foreign ministry was asked to comment on Singh’s statement after the regular press briefing was over.
Reacting to the statement, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that India’s transgressions were the root cause of the tensions at the China-India border.
“We urge the Indian side to follow through on the consensus, agreements and treaties it reached with China, and uphold peace and stability in the border region with concrete actions,” he said.
There was no immediate response from Indian officials to the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s comments.
The Indian government has repeatedly said that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) PLA troops were the first to provoke, transgress across the LAC and, subsequently, not ready to disengage.
India and China are in a standoff in eastern Ladakh along the LAC, following aggressive actions by the Chinese army. Twenty Indian soldiers laid down their lives and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed during a clash in the Galwan Valley last June.
Nearly 50,000 troops of the Indian Army are deployed in a high state of combat readiness in various mountainous locations in eastern Ladakh in sub-zero temperatures, as multiple rounds of talks between the two sides have not yielded concrete solutions to resolve the standoff. China has also deployed an equal number of troops, according to officials.
Although tensions have eased on the ground, there has been little progress in the many rounds of diplomatic and military talks for disengagement and de-escalation along the border. According to the government, while the Indian forces have responded appropriately to Chinese adventurism, it has also been conveyed to Beijing that China’s unilateral actions that disturbed peace along the LAC are unacceptable.
