Amid the ongoing Sikkim standoff, which has been flaring each day, the mouthpiece of the People's Liberation Army had said on Wednesday, July 20, that the Chinese Army has moved tonnes of military hardware towards the Line of Actual Control. However, India has now denied these claims and said that such activities have not been carried out and have not raised "any red flags."
Even as the two armies have refused to withdraw from the disputed Doklam region, the Indian officials have explained that the PLA has "not made any disquieting troop movement" yet and said that there was nothing "unusual" about the military exercise.
"It was a routine annual exercise that took place near Lhasa in early-June, around 700-km from the border. All armies conduct exercises at frequent intervals. The PLA has been conducting such exercises in Tibet since 2009," the Times of India quoted a source as saying.
PLA Daily had earlier reported that the Chinese Army had moved a vast haul of arms to a region south of the Kunlun Mountains in northern Tibet late last month and the state-run CCTV even showed Chinese troops taking part in an exercise in the region.
The PLA Daily report had also noted that the military equipment is now at a place from where it would take the Chinese Army just six to seven hours to move it to the Sikkim border in case the need arises. It was just a matter of 700 kilometers, which would be easily covered with efficient transport networks, the report had said.
The Chinese report is also being seen as the neighbours move to mentally pressurise India into withdrawing troops from the Doklam region and instead facilitate a direct dialogue between the two countries.
Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military commentator, explained to the South China Morning Post that the military equipment haul was "likely related to the stand-off and could have been designed to bring India to the negotiating table." He said that "diplomatic talks must be backed by military preparation."
Meanwhile, more and more people seem to be speaking up in favour of India. A few days ago, former Indian-American assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal told PTI that China must understand that India is "a force to be reckoned with."
Explaining that China's stand in the Indo-China border dispute in Sikkim has miffed quite a few neighbours, Biswal added: "China, I think, needs to acknowledge the fact that there is growing strategic and security capability across Asia, and certainly India is a force to be reckoned with."
Biswal also noted that more nations in the region are now stepping forward to express their interests and issues and this is the perfect time for India as well as China – both very capable nations – to address and solve the tensions and differences over borders and territories.
"China is a very mature and calibrated power. It's not a rogue actor, in any sense of the word. And certainly I think that the Indian side has also acted with a great deal of resolve and a great deal of restraint," she said.
Earlier, vice president of the European Parliament Ryszard Czarnecki had said that China was caught off guard by India's strong response to the Doklam issue.
In an article Czarnecki wrote for EP Today, he said that China has been assuring the world that its "peaceful rise" did not create issues for other countries and in fact rooted for a peaceful atmosphere, but that is not the truth. "In recent years and especially after Xi Jinping's succession as the country's President, one has been witnessing change in China's foreign policy and an infringement of internationally accepted norms," he wrote.
Bhutan's objection to construction activities by China in the disputed Doklam area, conveyed through diplomatic channels, was possibly expected by China. However, what China may not have foreseen was India stepping in to defend Bhutan's territorial sovereignty."
