Chinese state media sharply reacted to comments by India's Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, who has called China a challenge for the "foreseeable future."
"India has an excessive suspicion and paranoia toward China's rise. Seeing China as the 'most formidable' challenge makes no sense and has no chance of success for India. India does not need to 'fear' the so-called 'China challenge' China and India can and should be partners, avoiding becoming opponents, and certainly not enemies," Chinese state media outlet Global Times said on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
China and India now consider each other geopolitical rivals, as Washington has backed New Delhi as a bulwark against Beijing in the Indo-Pacific region. China and India have been locked in a four-year-long military standoff, which began in June 2020. The beginning of the stand-off in 2020 saw the first clash between the armies of China and India in over four decades.
"The unsettled borders with China and the rise of China will remain the most formidable challenge that India and Indian armed forces will face in the foreseeable future," Chauhan said at an event organized by a university in India's Pune on Monday, Indian news channel NDTV reported on Tuesday.
Newsweek contacted India's Ministry of Defense for comment.
"The occupation of Tibet by China, made them a new neighbor, and a partition of India created a new nation that thrived on hostility and hatred towards us," Chauhan added.
At least 50,000 soldiers on the Chinese and Indian sides are immediately facing each other in the Eastern Ladakh region since the stand-off began in 2020. At the same time, there is known to be a far more extensive deployment of troops in the rare areas of the Line of Actual Control.
Based on reports from the Indian media, the Indian Army now has between 150,000 and 200,000 soldiers facing China. The People's Liberation Army is said to have an equally large deployment of soldiers, up to 200,000 troops from the Xinjiang and Tibet Military Regions, Newsweek had reported earlier.
Bloomberg recently reported that India had deployed an additional 10,000 troops to the border with China after freeing the soldiers from the Western border with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, China's defense ministry recently responded to India's additional troop deployment and the inauguration of the Sela Tunnel in the Arunachal Pradesh region along the border with China.
"Zangnan is China's inherent territory, and China never recognizes and firmly opposes India's illegal establishment of the so-called 'Arunachal Pradesh,'" Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense, said on March 15.
"We require the Indian side to cease any action that may complicate the boundary question, and earnestly maintain peace and stability in the border areas," Zhang added.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aadil Brar is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian ... Read more
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