India on Wednesday expressed concern over China’s new Land Boundary Law that Beijing adopted on Saturday for the protection and exploitation of the country’s land border areas. The new law makes China’s borders “sacred and inviolable”.
In response to media queries on China’s Land Boundary Law, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi said, “China’s unilateral decision to bring about legislation which can have an implication on our existing bilateral arrangements on border management as well as on the boundary question is of concern to us.” “The passage of this new law (China’s Land Boundary Law) does not, in our view, confer any legitimacy to the so-called China-Pakistan ‘Boundary Agreement’ of 1963 which the Government of India has consistently maintained is illegal and invalid agreement,” said Bagchi.
The new Chinese law will take effect from 1 January 2022. Lawmakers approved the law at the closing meeting of a legislative session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Experts say that the new law is a message to India that China will not budge from whatever Indian territory it has encroached on along the Line of Actual Control. Bagchi also said, “India expects that China will avoid undertaking action under the pretext of this law which could unilaterally alter the situation in the India-China border areas.”
He further said that unilateral moves taken by China will have no bearing on the arrangements that both sides have already reached earlier, whether it is on the boundary question or for maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on India-China border areas.