Never recognised India’s Arunachal Pradesh, says China

BEIJING: China said that it had never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh state illegally established by India on Chinese territory.

“We have never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally established on the Chinese territory,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during his regular briefing.

The spokesperson said China’s position on the eastern section of the China and India boundary and China’s Southern Tibet was consistent and clear.

“China’s position on the east sector of the China-India boundary, or Zangnan–the southern part of China’s Xizang (Tibet), is consistent and clear,” he said.

He brushed off concerns over the whereabouts of the five youths from a village in Arunachal Pradesh allegedly abducted by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and said it has never recognised the northeastern state it claims is part of south Tibet.

“I’m not aware of the situation you mentioned,” the Chinese spokesperson said when asked about any updates about the missing Indian nationals.

READ MORE: India deploys missile system in Ladakh after standoff with China

The Chinese and Indian soldiers recently engaged in the most serious border clashes since they fought a war in 1962, leaving as many as twenty Indian soldiers dead during the fight.

China blamed India for the incidents, calling the actions by Indian border troops “infringing and provocative.”

The disputed border covers nearly 3,500 kilometers of frontier that the two countries call the Line of Actual Control and that stretches from Ladakh in the north to the Indian state of Sikkim in the northeast.

The two countries have been trying to settle their border dispute since the early 1990s without success.