The Asian Post
In a closed-door meeting last week, Chinese officials told foreign diplomats that the Chinese Army has been waiting patiently since the standoff started but they will not do so indefinitely.
Amid the standoff, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently conducted live-fire exercises in Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. State-run China Central Television (CCTV) reported the war games on Friday without mentioning the exact timing of the drills.
China tested new-type of light tank, which media called it “far better than India’s Type-90s MBT”, on Tibet Plateau https://t.co/JlcORsGrMb pic.twitter.com/LNnfJNcVvr
— People’s Daily,China (@PDChina) June 29, 2017
Following the diplomatic briefings and war games, a Global Times op-ed published on Tuesday warned India that China “doesn’t fear going to war to safeguard (its) sovereignty”. While the op-ed advised both nations to “exercise restraint” and ensure that the current conflict does not spiral out of control, it also said that China would ready itself for a “long-term confrontation”.
“If India stirs up conflicts in several spots, it must face the consequence of an all-out confrontation with China along the entire LAC,” the op-ed further warned.
The Global Times is an English-language Chinese newspaper under the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.
Other Chinese media articles and opinion pieces have also warned India of consequences if the standoff continues.
As reported last week, the People’s Daily posted a picture of a Chinese editorial, titled ‘If this can be tolerated, what cannot?’, from September 22, 1962 — just short of a month before the 1962 war started.
People’s Daily goes there today — posts image online of front page editorial from Sept 22, 1962: “If this can be tolerated, what cannot?” pic.twitter.com/jseaoiecbs
— Ananth Krishnan (@ananthkrishnan) July 12, 2017
We couldn’t access a direct English translation of the editorial. However, the essence of the editorial was that the “Chinese people would not tolerate the provocation by the Indian Army”, according to a People’s Daily Online article titled ‘People’s Daily to India: Borderline is bottom line’. Back then, the editorial had warned of serious consequences for India if the conflict lingered. Further, it had accused Indian troops of encroaching on Beijing’s territory.
