FM says standoff with India easily fixed

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it is easy to solve the standoff along the China-India border — Indian troops should withdraw from Doklam.

In a Foreign Ministry statement, Wang told reporters in Bangkok on Monday that it is very clear who is right and who is wrong in the standoff in Doklam, and that even senior Indian officials have publicly said that Chinese troops have not intruded into Indian territory.

“In other words, India admitted that it has entered Chinese territory. The solution to this issue is simple, which is that they behave themselves and withdraw,” Wang said.

Wang is by far the most senior Chinese official to have commented on the Indian troops’ incursion.

In June, Indian troops crossed the Sikkim section of the China-Indian boundary into Doklam, Chinese territory, to block China’s road construction there.

On June 28, Hindustan Times quoted Indian Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat as saying there was no incursion into Indian territory, commenting on reports of the standoff in Doklam.

In an opinion piece published by The Indian Express, Ruan Zongze, executive vicepresident of the China Institute of International Studies, said border issues with China are an example of how India’s foreign policy “is constricted by its misperceptions of China-India rivalry”.

Ruan cited the Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet in 1890, which defined the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary.

“This boundary convention was upheld by successive Indian governments. China’s roadwork in its own territory is legitimate. India should respect the border agreement,” Ruan said.

“The world is large enough to accommodate both China and India,” Ruan said, adding that it is imperative to build trust between Beijing and New Delhi, and that both countries will lose when they don’t work together.