China slams US General’s alarm over border infrastructure near Ladakh

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Beijing has slammed American Pacific Army’s General Charles A. Flynn after he raised alarm over China’s infrastructure build-up near the Indo-Tibet border near Ladakh.

Choekyi Lhamo, writing in Phayul reported that China on Thursday, June 15, 2022, accused the general of attempting to “fan flames” through his statements.

General Charles A Flynn on Wednesday had said that the defense infrastructure constructed by China near the Indian border is “alarming”, and “eye-opening.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian dismissed Flynn’s comments.

“Some US officials have pointed fingers and sought to fan the flame and drive a wedge between the two countries. This is disgraceful. We hope the US could do more things that contribute to regional peace and stability,” the report in Phayul quoted him saying.

Zhou said the border issue was a matter to be solved bilaterally between India and china. “Both sides have the will and capability of resolving the question through dialogue and consultation,” he is quoted saying.

The Chinese embassy in New Delhi also addressed the matter by noting that the allegations against China were “without any factual basis” and accused the US of violating the norms of “basic principles of diplomacy”.

The construction of a Chinese bridge, termed highly ‘strategic’ by analysts, was completed on the Pangong Lake’s border territory in Khurnak, which extends across Ladakh and Tibet.

In February this year, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan had informed the Lok Sabha about the bridge being constructed by China on Pangong lake in areas that have continued to be under the illegal occupation of China since 1962, adding that the Government of India has never accepted this “illegal” occupation.

In the summer of 2020, the Ladakh border standoff between India and China erupted following a clash of the armies in the Pangong area. The situation escalated after the Galwan Valley clashes in June of the same year.

Both countries have held 15 rounds of talks for disengagement to defuse the tensions in the area. As a result, India and China have disengaged their troops in the Gogra Heights area of eastern Ladakh. The troops of the two sides also disengaged in the Pangong Lake area in February last year.

Meanwhile, after China constructed a bridge over the Pangong lake in Ladakh, a senior official of the Chushul region has claimed that it has now installed mobile towers near its side of the border.

Chushul Councillor Konchok Stanzin in a tweet flagged the issue and claimed that three mobile towers have been installed near China’s hot spring very close to the Indian territory.