US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that China has moved up its forces along the Line of Actual Control with India, PTI reported. Last month, there were stand-offs between the Indian and Chinese armies in North Sikkim and Ladakh, two regions on the disputed Indo-China border.
“We see even today increasing forces of China moved up to the north of India on the Line of Actual Control there on the Indian border,” Pompeo said on AEI’s What The Hell Is Going On podcast.
Pompeo also accused the Communist Party of China of continuing to “hide and obfuscate” in order to delay the international response to the coronavirus pandemic. Pompeo said the one-party state is also destroying the freedoms previously enjoyed by the people of Hong Kong. The politician was referring to China’s imposition of a controversial security regime in the semi-autonomous region, intended to quell pro-democracy protests.
“Those are just two pieces of the behaviour of this regime of the Chinese Communist Party,” the US secretary of state said. “The nature and the activity that they’re undertaking, the continued efforts to steal intellectual property, to advance in the South China Sea.” These were the kind of actions indicative of authoritarian regimes, he alleged.
“It’s not just over the past six months,” Pompeo added. “We’ve seen over the past number of years continued Chinese build out of their military capabilities, and then continually more aggressive action.” The politician claimed that over the last 20 years, the United States has been too worried that it would lose the Chinese market if it took any action against the country.
United States President Donald Trump had last month offered to intervene in the India-China border dispute. However, both countries politely rejected the offer.
Elliot Engel, chief of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, on Monday also criticised Chinese aggression against India on the Line of Actual Control. He urged Beijing to “respect norms and use diplomacy and existing mechanisms to resolve its border questions”. “Countries must all abide by the same set of rules so that we don’t live in a world where ‘might makes right,” Engel said in a statement.
On the other hand, Australia said it was up to India and China to resolve their problems, the Hindustan Times reported. Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell said his country’s foreign policy is set by its national interests, including a desire for stability in the contested South China Sea.
Asked specifically about the India-China standoff, O’Farrell said: “In relation to the border issue, that’s a matter for China and India to resolve and not a matter for Australia to interfere with.” He made the remarks ahead of a planned virtual summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison.
‘Won’t compromise on borders’: Amit Shah
Meanwhile, India’s Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah told News18 in an interview that the government will not compromise at all on the integrity of India’s border with China. “We can’t take the issue of LAC lightly,” he said. “The government will not compromise one bit on this issue. We are dealing with this both militarily and diplomatically.”
The home minister said talks are being held through diplomatic channels and between officials of the Indian and Chinese defence establishments to resolve the matter. “This government is duty-bound to protect its borders and there should be no doubt about the fact that absolutely no compromise will be made by India in securing its borders, whether they be on land or in water,” he added. However, Shah did not respond when asked about rumours that the Chinese Army has entered Indian territory.
The Indian government has come under increasing fire from Opposition parties for the ambiguity over the stand-offs on the Line of Actual Control. On May 29, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asked the government to “come clean” about the border conflict.
The Congress leader’s remarks came two days after the party had called the stand-off between the two nations a matter of “serious national concern”. On May 26, Gandhi had made a similar demand and said the government should make it clear as to what was happening on the border so that people can understand and form their own opinions.
On May 31, India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that back channel talks are on between New Delhi and Beijing. Singh added that both India and China have resolved incidents that arose from time to time through dialogue and existing mechanisms. He cited the 73-day Doklam standoff in 2017, saying the situation appeared “very tense” then, but was eventually resolved through dialogue.
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