China asks India to withdraw troops, daily blames Doval

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China has renewed a call for India to pull back from Doklam, with its Foreign Minister Wang Yi reacting for the first time on the raging crisis which has pitted the two armies against each other in the Sikkim section.

As Wang blamed New Delhi for triggering the stand-off, China’s state-run media continued its vitriol, calling India’s National Security Adviser the “main schemer” behind the latest border dispute.

Wang said India’s stand on the dispute was untenable as it already “admitted” that its troops entered Chinese territory and a pullback by New Delhi was the “simple solution” to the border row. Wang, the most senior Chinese government official to speak on the issue, said India was responsible for the crisis.

“The rights and wrongs are very clear, and even senior Indian officials have openly stated that Chinese troops did not enter into the Indian boundary. So India has admitted it crossed into the Chinese territory,” he said.

“The solution is very simple. India must conscientiously pull back its troops,” a statement quoted Wang as saying. China also said it was battle ready and would step up the deployment of soldiers and military equipment in Tibet.