Union Minister's offhand remarks backfire as China says India makes unwitting confession

New Delhi: An untoward statement by Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highway and former Army Chief, General V.K. Singh's statement has put India in a difficult diplomatic position as China's Foreign Ministry said the minister has made an "unwitting confession".

On Sunday, Sindh said the border had never been demarcated and while China had breached across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India had done the same more than the rivals but the government did not announce it.

"None of you come to know how many times we have transgressed as per our perception. Chinese media does not cover it. Let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have it at least 50 times," Singh had said.

China's Foreign Ministry on Monday took note of the statement and marked them as acknowledgement for "frequent acts of trespass" by India. The ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, "This is an unwitting confession by the Indian side."

"For a long time, the Indian side has conducted frequent acts of trespass in the border area in an attempt to encroach on China's territory and constantly created disputes and frictions, which is the root cause of the tensions at the China-India border," the spokesperson said as he urged India to follow through on the consensus, agreements and treaties it reached with China, and uphold peace and stability in the border region with concrete actions.

This is not for the first time China takes advantage on Indian ministers' impromptus. Last year, China justified the People Liberation Army's intrusion into Indian areas seizing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments at an all-party meeting saying "nobody has intruded". Modi's remarks were relied on by the Chinese media to justify the country's border excesses including mobilization of troops, transgression across the LAC and unilateral redrawing of the LAC in several areas across eastern Ladakh.