US backs India in border dispute with China

United States has criticized China over Beijing’s latest standoff on the border with India.

According to Reuters Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a senior congressional leader have reprimanded China for bullying behaviour towards India.

Pompeo told the American Enterprise Institute thinktank that China’s moving of troops to the line of control echoed similarly heavy-handed behaviour over the coronavirus, South China Sea and Hong Kong.

“These are the kinds of actions that authoritarian regimes take,” he said.

One possible trigger for frictions is India’s construction of a road near the Galwan valley to narrow the gap with China’s superior network of roads that it built years ago, Indian and foreign military experts say. China is opposed to any Indian construction in the area, saying it is disputed territory.

The chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel, said China should respect norms and use diplomacy to settle the border issue with India.