Efforts to define LAC will create new disputes, claims Chinese Ambassado

New Delhi: China has no intention of initiating a process of clarifying the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India. Sun Weidong, the Chinese Ambassador to India, said that initiation of this process would lead to new disputes. It had been reported that India was insisting on the exchange of maps for claims and clarification regarding the LAC. The Chinese Ambassador’s statement has come against this background.

China has still not withdrawn its soldiers from the Pangong Tso region. But the Chinese Ambassador, while speaking at a webinar of the ‘Institute of Chinese Studies’, said that soldiers from both the countries have retreated from the LAC and the tension has been diffused. India immediately dismissed these claims. Before this, even the Chinese foreign ministry had made similar claims. Weidong reiterated the demand and expressed a contrary hope that the Indian soldiers should not intrude into the Chinese territory. He also claimed that the Chinese soldiers are patrolling in the traditional areas on the northern side of the Pangong Tso lake.

Weidong said that China was not in favour of starting the process of clarifying the LAC. He claimed that this would create new disputes. China has consistently taken advantage of the fact that the LAC is not well defined. This is in the interest of the Chinese expansionist policies. But following the Galwan Valley conflict, India is making the demand to clarify the LAC more aggressively. Exchange of maps with China is being insisted. This will clear the Chinese claims regarding the LAC.

But China has always avoided exchanging maps regarding its claims in this region. There have been 22 rounds of talks between the two countries for resolution of the border dispute. But China has never seemed interested in clarifying the LAC. Therefore, nothing could be achieved even after so many rounds of talks. Chinese reluctance to exchange maps raises doubts regarding Chinese intentions. As per analysts, China is not clarifying its claims as it wants to change the ground reality. The claim made by Weidong, the Chinese Ambassador to India, that new disputes will start if the process is begun makes this more evident.

Meanwhile, the claims made by the Chinese Ambassador, make it evident that China has been severely jolted by the Indian decisions to ban Chinese apps, campaign to boycott Chinese products and to stop Chinese investments in India. Weidong claimed that Indian and Chinese economies are complementary to each other and if the relations are forcibly severed, both the countries will be at a loss.