While India and China have been locked in a standoff over the Doklam plateau for over two months now, the latest region to see Chinese aggression is the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. It was earlier reported that the Indian and Chinese soldiers had clashed on the northern bank of Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh and there were also incidents of stone pelting in the clash. And like in the Doklam standoff, Beijing has once against blamed India for the clash in Kashmir.
Even though Beijing had earlier said that it was not aware of such an incident at the LAC, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has now said that China was just conducting "normal" patrols in the region and it was Indian soldiers who obstructed these patrols and clashed with the other side.
"During this time they were obstructed by Indian border forces and the Indian side took fierce actions, colliding with the Chinese personnel and having contact with their bodies, injuring the Chinese border personnel," Reuters quoted Hua as saying.
She also said that while China was committed to maintaining peace in the region and India's actions were in violation of this agreement. "China is extremely dissatisfied with this," she added.
It was earlier reported that the two sides had clashed at the LAC and a few soldiers of both the sides had even sustained minor injuries.
"There was a scuffle between the two sides, which included some stone-pelting as well, after Indian soldiers blocked two attempts by People's Liberation Army troops to enter Indian territory at the Finger-4 and Finger-5 areas early in the morning," a source told the Times of India
"Personnel from both sides received some injuries in the stone-pelting. The rival troops later pulled back from the confrontation site after banner drills to defuse the situation."
Since the Doklam standoff began in June, China has on more than one occasion said that they could enter Kashmir "on behalf of Pakistan" like India did in the Doklam region.
A Chinese defence expert had earlier told the Global Times that this move would be justified as it would be on the lines of the "same logic" that the Indian Army has been using to halt China's road construction project at the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction.
"Otherwise, under India's logic, if the Pakistani government requests, a third country's Army can enter the area disputed by India and Pakistan, including India-controlled Kashmir," the article on the Chinese paper said.
Even in Doklam, China has been blaming India for provoking the People's Liberation Army and has said that India halted Beijing's road construction, when it should have no business with what goes on within the Chinese territory.
Meanwhile, China has now said that it will not share the hydrological data with India unless New Delhi withdraws its troops from Doklam.
Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that China cannot be expected to keep up its bargain when India doesn't respect Beijing's sovereignty.
"Although China is a responsible country, we can't fulfil our obligations to India when it shows no respect to our sovereignty," IANS quoted Hu as saying.
