India's development not a threat: China

BEIJING, NOV. 30. China today said it did not perceive India's fast- paced economic growth a threat to beijing and that the two countries must work hard to develop their economy. ``China's development does not constitute any threat to any country, including India. We are confident that India's development, similarly, does not constitute a threat to China,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ms. Zhang Qiyue, said here.

``India and China are both big developing countries. We must both work hard to develop the economy and raise the living standards of the people,'' Ms. Zhang said while viewing positively the remarks made by the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, on China's fast-paced economic development in the past 20 years.

In a related development, in New Delhi, amid reports about dumping of Chinese goods in India, the Chinese Economic and Commercial Counsellor to India, Mr. Du Chengping, said his country has initiated anti-dumping measures against companies indulging in such practices.

Mr. Chengping admitted that there were reports about dumping and said China has initiated action against companies involved in the unfair practice. He emphasised that China was against dumping, but added that it was also the duty of India to check dumping.

He said Indian imports from China had spiralled by 63.3 per cent during the first half of the current year, while Chinese exports had increased by 30.3 per cent and both countries were moving towards narrowing the trade deficit. He said Sino- Indian trade organisations were focussing on increasing the trade volume and this could be doubled. Mr. Chengping denied that China was subsiding exportable products. Mr. Fernandes, while delivering a lecture in Delhi on November 26 on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of the National Cadet Corps (NCC), had said ``China has not become a powerful country overnight. It is the result of decades of hard work. We should particularly look at China and see how ahead of us it has gone in all fields.''

`LAC situation stable'

On the defence front, on reports that India plans to buy Israeli Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to monitor troop movement along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) as well as the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan, the spokesperson in Beijing merely said the situation along the LAC was largely stable.

``In recent years, under the joint efforts from both sides, the India-China border area is largely stable,'' Ms. Zhang Qiyue said. She hoped confidence-building measures signed by the two governments would be implemented and peace and tranquillity on the border are maintained.

Asked whether Beijing is ready to welcome Mr. Fernandes, whose remarks in 1998 that China was ``India's number one enemy'' had angered China, Ms. Zhang said, ``China's big door is wide open and we welcome people from various countries and circles to visit China and understand the real situation.''

According to the Foreign Ministry sources, no major problems have surfaced ever since China and India reached an agreement in 1993 on the maintenance of peace along the LAC and an agreement in 1996 on increasing confidence-building measures in the military field.

- PTI, UNI

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