China counters Modi's expansionist jibe, warns India against strategic 'miscalculation'

Beijing on Friday not only warned India against any “strategic miscalculation” with China, but also sought to dismiss Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tacit jibe at the communist country for its expansionism as “groundless”.

“India should avoid a strategic miscalculation with regard to China,” Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government, said in Beijing. His comment came on a day India sent a strong message to China with a “surprise visit” by the Prime Minister to Ladakh – closer to the scene of the stand-off between Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Modi’s visit and his address to the soldiers of Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police did rile China. “Neither side should make any move that may complicate the border situation,” Zhao said in his regular news-conference in Beijing, responding to a query on Indian Prime Minister’s visit nearer to scene of the stand-off.

He noted that China and India are “in communication with each other through military and diplomatic channels” to defuse tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between the two nations in western sector.

The Prime Minister took a subtle dig at China while addressing the Indian Army and the ITBP soldiers during his visit to Ladakh. He said that the era of expansionism is over and the history had witnessed that expansionist forces had always been defeated.

Though he did not directly refer to China’s aggression along the disputed boundary with India, the embassy of the communist country in New Delhi reacted sharply.

“China has demarcated the boundary with 12 of its 14 neighboring countries through peaceful negotiations, turning land borders into bonds of friendly cooperation. It's groundless to view China as ‘expansionist’, exaggerate & (and) fabricate its disputes with neighbours,” Ji Rong, the spokesperson of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in New Delhi, tweeted.