Tensions rise during India-china standoff
Chinese leaders insist on pullback of Indian troops
BEIJING — China on Wednesday insisted India withdraw its troops from a disputed plateau in the Himalayan mountains before talks can take place to settle the most protracted standoff in recent years between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who fought a brief but bloody frontier war 55 years ago.
India must pull back its troops “as soon as possible” as a precondition to demonstrate sincerity, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a daily news briefing.
His comments came after weeks of saber-rattling in New Delhi and Beijing, as officials from both sides talk up a potential clash bloodier than the 1962 war that left thousands dead.
The confrontation could spill over into the G-20 summit in Germany later this week where Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are expected to meet at a gathering of leaders from five emerging economies on the sidelines of the main event.
The monthlong standoff and unconfirmed reports of troop buildups on both sides of the border have also underscored the swiftly deteriorating relations between the two Asian rivals headed by assertive leaders with a nationalist bent.
Despite a litany of grievances on both sides, frequent clashes on the 2,174-mile shared border have been the most prominent irritant in efforts to build stable ties between the two emerging economic powers, said Zhang Li, an expert on China-india relations at Sichuan University.
“The border clashes show how fragile and volatile the relationship can be,” Zhang said.
While Indian media have issued shrill warnings about Chinese expansionism, Chinese state media have also ramped up their bellicose rhetoric, with the nationalist tabloid Global Times warning Wednesday that Beijing would make no concessions.
“The Indian military can choose to return to its territory with dignity, or be kicked out of the area by Chinese soldiers,” said the Global Times, which is published by the ruling Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
Meanwhile, the more mainstream China Daily suggested that some in the Indian military were seeking payback for defeat in the 1962 war that proved to be “too humiliating for some.”
Zhang, the Sichuan University professor, acknowledged there has been unusually tough talk from both sides but said the conduct of the two militaries and foreign ministries has been relatively restrained and “within normal bounds.”
Abhijnan Rej, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank, said India needed to “show resolve” as China tries to pry away its traditional allies like Bhutan and assert itself as the region’s leader.