China committed to peace, not a strategic threat to India, says envoy

Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong on Thursday said that Beijing was committed to peace and was not a strategic threat to India. ““To move China-India relations forward, I believe that we need to straighten our views on several key issues. First, China is committed to peaceful development, and is not a ‘strategic threat’ to India,” Sun said at a webinar on India-China relation.

The Chinese envoy said that there is a long history of peaceful co-existence between China and India and portray a friendly neighbour for thousands of years and that it is a short-sighted action to portray a friendly neighbour in a bad light due to temporary differences and difficulties.

“Our economic and trade exchanges should be positive cycle of mutual accomplishment. It should not become a knockout nor a zero-sum game deliberately suppressing others. We should recognize mutually beneficial and win-win nature and jointly create open, fair, just business environment,” Sun said in what could be perceived as a reaction to India’s ban on Chinese apps following the June 15 violent face-off in Galwan Valley along the LAC.

Mr Sun said that Beijing advocates sovereignty and is against aggression or expansion.
“China has firmly safeguarded its national sovereignty, security and development interests. We have never been aggressive and pursued our own development at the expense of other countries,” he said.

Weidong said, “At this critical moment, we should handle relations cautiously, calmly and rationally, conform to international trend, always look forward and move forward, resolutely avoid the whirlpool of suspicion and confrontation.”

Though, what happened in Eastern Ladakh was exactly opposite to what the envoy has expressed, where 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a deadly clash.

The envoy also said that the border troops have disengaged in most localities. However India clarified that there has been some progress made, but the disengagement process has not been completed yet.