Indian seen trying to restrain China on border issue

• Source: Global Times
• [03:10 September 15 2009]
• Comments

By Gao Xiaohui

The media and government of India are colluding to drum up an alleged Chinese intrusion into Indian territory, some military experts in China claim, citing high-profile accusations.

The Indian Times reported Sunday that the Chinese Army is engaged in construction activities along the international border across the Karakoram ranges in the Ladakh sector, though the newspaper also said the Indian Army has explained the development by saying that "some digging has been noticed well inside Chinese territory."

Following the report, Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna said that India and China are sharing a peaceful relationship on the border, the report added.

"The media and the government are just together playing a double-reed instrument," Dai Xu, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times Monday, noting that the distinctive voices were playing up the story.

Meanwhile, General Kapoor, head of the Indian Armed Forces Chiefs panel, noted last week that there may be differing perceptions regarding the "line of actual control." The newspaper, though, questioned why the government was remaining silent on the "incursion."

Between media accusations and the army's "tempered" claims, "The India-China border has become more hot than the India-Pakistan border," Brahma Chellaney of the Center for Policy Research was quoted by the Kashimirwatch as saying.

Strategic interests are behind such drama, in which some others may expect to provoke Sino-Indian confrontations as a way to constrain China, said Fu Xiaoqiang, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

Liu Yang contributed to this story