New Delhi: China has again raised the issue of Arunachal Pradesh, saying Beijing exercised effective “administration jurisdiction” over the area before New Delhi’s “illegal occupation”.
Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs, reiterated China’s claim on Monday, just days after external affairs minister S. Jaishankar called Beijing’s claims “ludicrous”.
“The Sino-Indian border has never been demarcated and is divided into the eastern, central and western sections and the Sikkim section. The southern Tibetan area (Arunachal Pradesh) in the eastern section has always been Chinese territory,” Lin said during a regular press briefing.
Lin added: “Before India’s illegal occupation, China had always exercised effective administrative jurisdiction over the southern Tibetan area. This basic fact cannot be denied.”
This is the fourth time this month that China has asserted its right on Arunachal Pradesh. The claims by Beijing started days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the strategically important Sela tunnel on 9 March, connecting Assam’s Tezpur with Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
“This is not a new issue. China has laid claim, it has expanded its claim. The claims were ludicrous to begin with. They remain ludicrous today. Arunachal is a part of India because it is part of India, not because some other country says it is a part of India,” Jaishankar said during an interaction in Singapore on 23 March, which led to the latest reaction from Beijing.
The visit by Modi led to Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin saying that China has never recognised the “illegally established” state of Arunachal Pradesh, a claim which was once again made by Lin Monday.
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A timeline of Beijing’s claims
After Wang raised the issue on 11 March, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal rebuked Beijing a day later, saying Chinese protests would make no difference to the reality that Arunachal Pradesh was an “inalienable” part of India.
On 15 March, the Chinese defence ministry responded by saying it did not recognise and “firmly opposes” India’s establishment of Arunachal Pradesh.
Jaiswal responded on 19 March calling Beijing’s claim “baseless” and “absurd”.
“We have noted the comments made by the Spokesperson of the Chinese Defence Ministry advancing absurd claims over the territory of the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh. Repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity,” Jaiswal said.
A day later, the principal deputy spokesperson of the US Department of State said Washington D.C. recognised Arunachal Pradesh as a part of India and it “strongly opposes” any unilateral attempts to advance “territorial claims by incursions and encroachments”.
This led to further pushback from Beijing. A day later, Lin said the boundary was a bilateral matter and had nothing to do with Washington D.C. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson added that the US’ behaviour was to “use other countries’ disputes to serve its own selfish geopolitical interests”.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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