China reacted sharply on Thursday to Army chief General Bipin Rawat's remarks that Beijing was testing India's limits. China said the remarks expressed by the Army chief were contrary to the views expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit this week.
The Army chief, while speaking at a seminar in New Delhi on Wednesday said India should be prepared for a two-front war -- from China in the north and Pakistan. Rawat insisted China had begun "flexing its muscles," while there is no chance of reconciliation with Pakistan.
"As far as the northern adversary is concerned, flexing of muscles has started. Salami slicing, taking over territory in a very gradual manner, testing our limits of the threshold is something we have to be wary about and remain prepared for situations which could gradually emerge into conflict," Rawat said at a seminar organised by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies in New Delhi.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang, reacting to Rawat's comments, told a briefing: "We have noted the statement by relevant people in India, also we noticed some Indian press remarked that the reports are shocking."
"As reported by Indian press...we don't know whether he was authorised to speak those words or it was just his spontaneous words or whether his words represented the position of the Indian government," Geng added, while referring to Modi's meeting with Xi after the end of a 73-day standoff at Dokalam, according to PTI.
The foreign ministry spokesperson said China and India are important neighbours.
"Just two days ago, President Xi Jinping pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the two countries are each other's development opportunities, not threats," Geng said.
"We hope India could view China's development in a correct and rational way. We need to show to the world that peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation is the only right choice for the two countries," Geng quoted Xi as telling Modi during their meeting in Xiamen.
"We should respect each other, seek common ground and shelve differences, preserve peace and tranquillity of the border area," Xi had said.
Geng also said PM Modi had also agreed that Indian side will work with China to maintain steady development of the bilateral ties between both the nations.
"We should not treat each other as rivals. We should make cooperation the mainstream and the two sides should work together to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas," Geng said. "Hope that this military official would see clearly this trend and contribute to development of China and India relations and see something more in that regard," he said.
Tensions between India and China had worsened after Indian soldiers stopped Chinese troops from constructing a road in the uninhabited territory of Doklam, which is claimed by both Bhutan and China. This resulted in a long standoff between the troops of both the nations along India's Sikkim border.
The standoff finally came to an end last month. The Ministry of External Affairs said the countries had decided to pull back their troops from the border.
