“Both Sides Willing…”: New China Foreign Minister On Ties With India

In an opinion piece for the American journal The National Interest, China’s incoming foreign minister Qin Gang stated that Beijing wants to strengthen ties with New Delhi. 

Days prior to Wang Yi’s replacement, Qin addressed India-China border disputes in an article titled “How China Sees the World,” stating that “both sides are eager to ameliorate the situation and mutually protect peace along their borders.”

The Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake in the west of the LAC, have hosted flashpoints in recent years. In the east in Tawang, the site of the latest scuffle, there are discussions about Buddhist holy sites whose control can have implications for China’s authority over Tibet and its next spiritual leader according to a report in Newsweek.

On December 20, India and China convened the 17th Round of Corps Commander Level Meeting at the Chushul-Moldo border crossing point on the Chinese side, and they decided to keep the Western Sector secure and stable.

“In the interim, the two sides agreed to maintain the security and stability on the ground in the Western Sector,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

The MEA statement said the two sides agreed to stay in close contact, and maintain dialogue through military and diplomatic channels and work out a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest.

Qin, meanwhile also blamed the US for challenging the status quo on Taiwan, and Japan for altering the status quo in the South China Sea.

“Instead of becoming a rising power ready to “disrupt the status quo,” as some have claimed, China’s progress means a stronger force for peace. The existing quo of “one China,” which has been continuously challenged by “Taiwan independence” separatists and other forces, is what has caused the tension across the Taiwan Strait, not the Chinese mainland ” Qin composed.

Qin, who was China’s ambassador to the United States, was appointed as the country’s new foreign minister on Friday.

This decision was made by the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, Global Times reported.

Qin, 56, replaced Wang, who is now a Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and State Councillor, the report added.

On Thursday, the Chinese ambassador had warned Washington that it could face “military conflict” with Beijing over the future status of Taiwan.

“If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going down the road for independence, it most likely will involve China and the United States, the two big countries, in a military conflict,” Qin told US-based publication NPR in his first one-on-one interview since assuming his post in Washington, last July

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