DM Monitoring
BEIJING: China on Monday urged India to uphold the peace and tranquility in the border regions with its concrete actions after clashes between the soldiers of the two countries erupted on Sikkim border region.
“We hope India will work with China to uphold peace and tranquility in the border regions with its concrete actions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during his regular briefing here.
A clash happened at China-India border last week. Several Chinese and Indian soldiers were injured after throwing stones and fighting each other. The spokesperson said, “As to China-India border issue, our position is clear and consistence. Our troops there remained committed to upholding of peace and stability in the region. This serves the common interest of our two countries and two people.”
He said the Chinese border troops had always been upholding peace and tranquility along the border areas of the two countries and added, “China and India stay in close communication and coordination concerning our border affairs within existing channels.”
Zhao Lijian remarked that this year marked the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties and two countries had joined hands in the fight against Covid-19.
“Under such circumstances, the two sides should work together, handle the differences earnestly and uphold peace and stability in the border regions so as to create enabling conditions for bilateral relations as well as to fight against covid-19 jointly,” he added. When asked whether China was looking at adopting an aggressive approach against India after the Covid-19 pandemic, he termed the relevant assumption as groundless.
“Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China and India have been staying closely in communication and cooperation on prevention and control of the challenge,” he added. He said now most pressing concern for the international community was solidarity and cooperation against Covid-19, and added, “We should not allow any politicization and stigmatization in a bid to create more differences or confrontation.”
Earlier, Indian media claimed that India troops rolled back attempts by Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to push their way into Sikkim’s Muguthang valley and clashes took an ugly turn on Friday.
Moreover, China warned on Monday that it will take countermeasures in response to a U.S. decision to tighten visa terms for Chinese journalists and urged the United States to immediately “correct its mistake”. The United States last week issued a new rule limiting visas for Chinese reporters to a 90-day period, with the option for extension, that takes effect on Monday. Such visas are typically open-ended and do not need to be extended, unless the employee moves to a different company or medium. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters during a daily briefing in Beijing that China deplored and rejected the U.S. decision, which Zhao called an escalation of suppression against Chinese media.
“We are resolutely opposed and strongly dissatisfied with this,” Zhao said. “We require the U.S. to immediately correct its mistake, or China will have no choice but to take countermeasures.” The United States and China have been engaged in a series of retaliatory actions involving journalists in recent months.
In March, China expelled American journalists from three U.S. newspapers, a month after the United States said it would begin to treat five Chinese state-run media entities with U.S. operations as foreign embassies.
Earlier, China expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters – two Americans and an Australian – after the paper published an opinion column calling China the “real sick man of Asia”. In issuing the new regulation on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security cited what it called China’s “suppression of independent journalism”.
“For a period of time, the U.S. has stuck to a Cold War mentality and ideological bias, and it has continuously escalated its suppression of Chinese media,” Zhao said.
“Now they’re using visas to take discriminatory limitations, severely disrupting the Chinese media’s ability to report normally in the U.S., severely disrupting people-to-people relations between our two countries.”
Meanwhile, China on Monday expressed strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the U.S. decision to shorten visas for Chinese journalists to a 90-day period. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a press briefing. He demanded the United States to correct its wrongdoing immediately, saying that otherwise China will have to take countermeasures.
Earlier, China appreciates Russia’s position against acts by individual countries using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to stigmatize and blame China, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.
Zhao made the remarks at a press briefing Monday.
