China tells diplomats its troops losing patience with India on Sikkim

NEW DELHI: Chinese officials have conveyed to the diplomats in Beijing that ‘troops [on the Sikkim border with Bhutan] waiting patiently, won’t do so indefinitely’, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

‘This has the diplomatic community in Beijing worried, and some have conveyed this message to their Indian counterparts in Beijing and Bhutanese counterparts in New Delhi,’ it said.

Also on Tuesday, Chinese media had warned India that the border row ‘will trigger all-out confrontation’. “Within China, there are voices calling for the Indian troops to be expelled immediately to safeguard the country's sovereignty,” state-sponsored Global Times reported.

‘China has conveyed to foreign diplomats in Beijing that troops of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been waiting patiently at the plateau but will not wait for an indefinite period,’ The Indian Express quoted sources as saying.

‘This has the diplomatic community in Beijing worried, and some have conveyed this message to their Indian counterparts in Beijing and Bhutanese counterparts in New Delhi.’

Sources told the newspaper that Chinese officials, at a closed-door briefing last week, conveyed their version of events to diplomats stationed in Beijing. Some of the G-20 countries have been briefed by the Chinese government separately.

“Our colleagues in Beijing attended the briefing and were given the impression that the Chinese side will not be waiting for an indefinite period. This is quite worrying, and we have conveyed it to our Indian colleagues in Beijing and Bhutanese colleagues in Delhi,” a diplomat from one of the P-5 (permanent members of the UN Security Council) countries, told The Indian Express.

The diplomatic community in Beijing has been told that the dispute is between China and Bhutan, and the Indian soldiers have “jumped in”.

“They have told our colleagues in Beijing that the Indian side has trespassed into Chinese territory and changed the status quo,” the diplomat said.

This is contrary to what India maintained. In its June 30 statement, New Delhi said it is “deeply concerned” at recent Chinese actions and has conveyed to the Chinese government that such construction will represent a “significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India”.

The Chinese have told diplomats in Beijing that they have strong evidence to prove that Doklam belongs to China. They said Doklam has always been the “traditional pasture for Chinese border inhabitants” and that their archives still retain “some receipts of the grass tax paid by Bhutanese herdsmen”.

They maintained that Indian troops must pull back to the Indian side of the boundary unconditionally and immediately, which is a precondition for meaningful dialogue between China and India.