[As if to underline the warning, a Chinese newspaper on Friday reported that the People’s Liberation Army had recently held artillery exercises with live ammunition in Tibet, the region near the disputed land. Global Times, a popular party-run paper, said on its website that the exercises, at 15,000 feet above sea level, included simulated long-distance attacks on armored units and missile launchers.]
By Chris Buckley and Ellen Barry
 |
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Chinese
and Indian soldiers at a border crossing from the Indian state of Sikkim
in
2008. Beijing
is defending its claim to 34 square miles of disputed land
at a corner where China,
India and Bhutan meet. Credit Diptendu
Dutta/AgenceFrance-Presse
— Getty Images
|
BEIJING
— China’s military has
warned India not to underestimate its resolve to hold a mountainous piece of
land at the heart of a standoff between the two Asian powers.
The comments from the Chinese Ministry of
National Defense on Thursday were the most blunt yet from Beijing in the
dispute and indicated that the diplomatic quarrel could still fester or
escalate, even if armed conflict seems unlikely.
“India must dispel any illusions that it can
hold out for a change,” Col. Ren Guoqiang, a spokesman for the Chinese Defense
Ministry, said in a statement online. He repeated China’s demand that India
withdraw its troops from the disputed area.
The warning capped days of official comments
and editorials from Beijing defending its claim to the 34 square miles of
disputed land at a corner where China, India and the small kingdom of Bhutan
meet. India does not claim the land but says it has been acting on behalf of
Bhutan.
The area in dispute is small and remote, but
the geopolitical stakes are high.
“No country should underestimate the
confidence and ability of the Chinese military to fulfill its duty of defending
peace,” Colonel Ren said. “Nor should it underestimate the determination and
will of the Chinese military to safeguard national sovereignty, security and
development interests.”
As if to underline the warning, a Chinese
newspaper on Friday reported that the People’s Liberation Army had recently
held artillery exercises with live ammunition in Tibet, the region near the
disputed land. Global Times, a popular party-run paper, said on its website
that the exercises, at 15,000 feet above sea level, included simulated
long-distance attacks on armored units and missile launchers.
In a separate editorial, Global Times said
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, had failed to grasp that Chinese
military forces would crush Indian border forces in a conflict.
“If war breaks out, the Liberation Army will
use its thunderous might to deliver a painful lesson to India,” the paper said
on Friday. “The Modi government should understand the powerful delivery
capabilities and overwhelming firepower of the Liberation Army.”
As the rhetoric from Beijing has escalated in
recent days, India has sought to play down the risks of a continued standoff,
saying, without offering specifics, that its diplomats were actively engaging
with China behind the scenes. In a statement this week, China said that India
was already on the retreat, having drawn down the number of troops engaged in
the confrontation to less than 50, from 400.
Indian officials have privately dismissed
that claim, suggesting that Indians outnumber Chinese three to one at the point
of confrontation, but they have said nothing in public.
“The game has been to not respond,” said Ajai
Shukla, a former colonel in the Indian Army who is strategic affairs editor at
the newspaper Business Standard. He said the Indian authorities were hoping
that China’s bluster was intended as a “rhetorical cover” for the withdrawal of
troops.
But it may prove difficult to stall into the
winter, as Indian officials have suggested hopefully. One problem is growing
frustration on the part of Bhutan, which has tried to steer a middle path
between its two giant neighbors, enjoying close relations with India without
antagonizing China.
At a news conference on Friday, a spokesman
for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs was asked repeatedly whether Bhutan
had requested India’s military intervention, a question that India has not
answered directly. The spokesman, Gopal Baglay, responded by invoking the
lyrics of a Hindi song: “If you understand hints, let secrets be secrets.”
The risks of military conflict between China
and India were slim, but worrisome, and the dispute could be a drag on ties for
a long time, said Prof. Zhang Li, an expert on India at Sichuan University in
southwest China.
“We can’t totally rule out a limited military
conflict if things get out of control,” he said by telephone. “But for now the
chances are slight. Both sides are still looking for a diplomatic solution.”
Mr. Modi is to attend a summit meeting in
eastern China early next month for the leaders of the BRICS countries — Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa. But Mr. Modi may pull out if the
contention continues, Professor Zhang said.
“The gap between the positions of the two
sides is big,” Professor Zhang said. “If this continues, the event will be
affected.”
The standoff over the territory started in
June, when Bhutan discovered Chinese workers extending an unpaved road on the
Doklam Plateau, part of the disputed territory. When India sent troops and
equipment to halt the roadwork and push back the Chinese workers, China accused
India of intruding into its territory and of strong-arming Bhutan into going
along. Since then Indian and Chinese troops have held a wary standoff hundreds
of feet from each other.
On Friday, an editorial in People’s Daily,
the main official paper of the Chinese Communist Party, amplified the warnings
that Beijing would not back down.
“No country should underestimate the
determination of the Chinese government and people to defend territorial
sovereignty,” the unsigned editorial said. “China will take whatever measures
are necessary to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
Even if the military jostling dies down, the
dispute has brought to a head a souring in Chinese-Indian relations.
India’s prime minister, Mr. Modi, and China’s
president, Xi Jinping, have tried to warm relations by promoting trade and
personal rapport. But the 2,520-mile border between the two countries is rife
with longstanding territorial disputes involving them and their neighbors, and
in 1962 the two countries fought a brief war that ended badly for India.
Negotiations since the 1980s to settle the disputes have made little progress.
A quarrel flared in 2015 while Mr. Modi
visited China to smooth over rifts and promote economic ties.
Public opinion in both countries bristles at
any challenges to territorial claims, and Mr. Xi emphasized this week that the
People’s Liberation Army should stand prepared to ward off threats to Chinese
sovereignty.
“We will never permit anybody, any organization,
any political party to split off any piece of Chinese territory from China at
any time or in any form,” Mr. Xi said in Beijing on Tuesday at a meeting to
mark 90 years since the army was formed. “Nobody would nurse any hope that we
will swallow the bitter fruit of harm to our national sovereignty, security and
development interests.”
Follow Chris Buckley @ChuBailiang and Ellen
Barry @EllenBarryNYT on Twitter.
