China has no locus standi to comment on J&K, Ladakh, says India

India on Thursday re-asserted its sovereignty over the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh as well as the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and said that China did not have a locus standi to comment on its internal matters.

New Delhi also not-so-subtly hinted that if Beijing wanted it to stick to the "One-China" policy of not recognising Taiwan as a separate nation and to refrain from commenting on the situation in Hong Kong or Xinjiang or Tibet autonomous regions of China, it should also respect India’s sovereignty on J&K, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

“The Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are, and would remain an integral part of India. China has no locus standi to comment on India's internal matters,” Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said.

“Our position on Arunachal Pradesh has also been made clear several times. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India,” he added.

His comment came two days after Beijing objected to New Delhi’s move to step up construction of infrastructure closer to the India-China border in J&K, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Beijing on Tuesday stated that New Delhi’s move to step up construction of infrastructure and deployment of troops in India-China border areas was the “root cause” of tension between the two neighbouring nations. It also reiterated that China did not recognise Ladakh as a Union Territory and Arunachal Pradesh as a state of India. The statement by Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government, came a day after India officially unveiled 44 new bridges built closer to India’s borders with Pakistan and China.

The bridges remotely inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh included eight each in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh –the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the McMahon Line, which serve as the de facto boundary between India and China in the western and eastern sectors respectively in the absence of a settled border. Ten more bridges were built closer to the India-China boundary in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are currently engaged in a military stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

New Delhi on Thursday stated that it had conveyed its position on J&K, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh to Beijing “on several occasions, including at the highest level”.