China on Monday asserted that it had never waged a war to occupy “an inch of land of other countries”, days after BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi slammed the Communist giant for its “expansionist mindset”.
“You mentioned expansionism by the Chinese side. I believe all of you can see that China has never waged a war of aggression to occupy an inch of land of other countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters while responding to questions on Modi’s remarks.
“We always reiterate that we take real actions to commit through the peaceful development path” and are committed to good neighbourliness and cooperative relations, she said. “There has never been any armed clashes in border areas over the years. So there is very strong evidence that we have the capability to maintain peace there. This is very good for the future development of the bilateral relations,” she said, highlighting that there was no major confrontation at Sino-Indian borders after the 1962 war.