China says India's politicians making 'irresponsible remarks'

China on Friday alleged that some politicians in India were recently making “irresponsible remarks”.

Beijing also hinted that it might move the World Trade Organization (WTO) to complain and take appropriate measures to retaliate to New Delhi’s moves to limit the scope of China’s companies from doing businesses in India.

Two days after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that no company from China would be allowed to participate in road construction projects in India; Beijing said that New Delhi would violate the rules of the World Trade Organization if it creates such “artificial barriers” for bilateral cooperation.

“In recent days some politicians in India have kept issuing irresponsible remarks that are detrimental to China-India relations,” Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government, said in Beijing. He was replying to a query on Beijing’s position on New Delhi’s decision to bar the communist country’s companies to participate in highway construction projects in India.

New Delhi's decision came in response to China’s belligerence along its disputed boundary with India. The two-month-long stand-off took New Delhi’s relations with Beijing to a new low, particularly after the violent clash between the soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between the two nations – at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15. The Indian Army lost 20 of its soldiers in the clash. The Chinese PLA too suffered casualties, but it did not make public the number of its soldiers, who were injured or killed in the violent face-off.

“It calls for concerted efforts on both sides to maintain China-India relations. India should work with China for the same goal and uphold the overall interests of our bilateral relations,” said the spokesperson of the Chinese Government. “China-India practical cooperation is mutually beneficial and win-win in nature. Artificially setting up barriers for such cooperation not only violates WTO rules, but also hurts India's interests. China will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights of Chinese businesses.”

Beijing earlier “firmly opposed” India’s move to ban the use of 59 apps linked to China, stating that New Delhi abused the “national security exception” to the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“We need to see that China and India, both major developing countries, bear the historic mission of accelerating national development and rejuvenation,” Zhao said in Beijing on Friday. “Hence,” he said, “acts of mutual respect and mutual support represent the right track and also conform to the long-term interests of both countries, whereas those of mutual distrust and friction belong to an evil path and go against the fundamental aspirations of the two peoples. China and India should follow the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and uphold overall bilateral relations.”