If we enter India, ‘chaos’, warns China; Also holds India’s stand on Doklam standoff ‘vicious’

New Delhi: China on Tuesday warned India of “utter chaos” if its troops enter India and declared Delhi’s stand on the confrontation at the remote Doklam plateau as “ridiculous and vicious”.

In June, Indian troops crossed the border at Sikkim to stop China’s construction of a road at the plateau described by Delhi as a serious security concern because of its location at the borders of Bhutan, India and China, said media reports.

Beijing says it’s building a road on its own land in the eastern Himalayas, but Bhutan and India say the plateau belongs to the Himalayan kingdom, added the reports.

“The Indian side illegally crossed the boundary on the excuse of …Chinese road building. The reason is ridiculous, vicious and facts are clear,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Tuesday.

“Does that mean when China thinks that large-scale construction of infrastructure at the border area of India is posing a threat, it can enter Indian territory? Wouldn’t that be utter chaos?”

On Monday, the same spokesperson blamed India for clashes last week on the other side of the border in Ladakh in the Western Himalayas that saw Indian and Chinese soldiers targeting each other with stones. Footage of the clashes emerged over the weekend. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, meanwhile, in keeping with India’s refusal to be baited into ugly rhetoric, said he expects the confrontation at Sikkim to subside soon.

The Sikkim tension that involves nearly 300 soldiers from each side standing metres apart in a face-off is the longest conflict between the two armies since 1987 when they faced a similar situation in Arunachal Pradesh.