■ CHINA WARNS INDIA NOT TO TEST BEIJING
Beijing is intensifying its warnings to Indian troops to get out of a contested region high in the Himalayas where China, India and Bhutan meet, saying China’s “restraint has its limits” and publicizing live-fire drills in Tibet.
Indian troops entered the area in the Doklam Plateau in June after New Delhi’s ally, Bhutan, complained a Chinese military construction party was building a road inside Bhutan’s territory.
Beijing says Doklam is located in Tibet and that the border dispute between China and Bhutan has nothing to do with India. It has demanded that Indian troops withdraw before any talks.
On Friday, China Central Television broadcast video it said showed an army unit in an unidentified part of Tibet carrying out live-fire firing exercises in the past few days.
A commander sitting in a vehicle shouted “3, 2, 1, fire!” into two telephones and a missile was launched into the sky. Troops were shown loading and firing other missiles, some of which landed in fiery explosions.
The report, which was also carried in other state media, didn’t mention the dispute with India, and said the unit has been training for three months.
It appeared to be an attempt to increase pressure on India, however, along with strongly worded statements this week from China’s foreign and defense ministries, as well as in state media.
“China has made it clear that there is no room for negotiation and the only solution is the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from the region,” said a commentary Friday by Xinhua News Agency.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Thursday that while Chinese armed forces had shown “utmost goodwill” and a “high level of restraint” in the face of the Indian troops, “restraint has its limits.”
“No country should underestimate the Chinese forces’ confidence and capability to safeguard peace and their resolve and willpower to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests,” Ren said in a statement.