An Indian drone has “invaded” China's airspace and crashed,
China's defence ministry said on Thursday, months after the neighbours
ended one of their worst border standoffs in decades.
“The
Indian move violated China's territorial sovereignty. We strongly
express our dissatisfaction and opposition,” deputy director of the
army's western theatre combat bureau, Zhang Shuili, said in a statement.
Zhang did not give details about when or where the incident happened.
Chinese
border troops “took a professional and responsible attitude” and
carried out identification verification of the device, Zhang said.
“We will earnestly fulfil our mission of duty and firmly defend the sovereignty and security of our country,” he added.
The Indian embassy in Beijing declined to comment.
In August, the two nations pulled back their troops to resolve a tense deadlock over part of a Himalayan plateau claimed by both China and Bhutan, an ally of India.
The
standoff began in mid-June after Chinese troops started building a road
on the remote Doklam plateau.
India has an army base nearby and moved soldiers into the flashpoint
zone to halt the work, prompting Beijing to accuse it of trespassing on
Chinese soil.
After both sides withdrew, India's army chief said in September that his country could not afford to be complacent and must be prepared for war.
“As
far as our northern adversary is concerned, flexing of muscles has
started,” General Bipin Rawat said at a think tank event in New Delhi,
in reference to China.
“The salami slicing, taking over
territory in a very gradual manner... testing our limits of threshold is
something we have to be wary about and remain prepared for situations
which could gradually emerge into conflict,” the army chief said.
Rawat said India also has concerns that Pakistan could take advantage of the tensions.
India and China went to war in 1962 over the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The latest episode has fed into a broader competition for regional influence between the two Asian powers.
The two emerging economies both have large populations and a growing middle class.
China
has invited India to join President Xi Jinping's new “Silk Road”
project to revive ancient trade routes from Asia to Europe and Africa.
But the economic corridor has alarmed India, partly because one of the links cut through Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
