Official: China OK With India
By HEMA SHUKLA, Associated Press Writer NEW DELHI, India (AP) - China harbors no ill will toward India, the head of the Chinese legislature said Saturday, despite the former combatants' ongoing border dispute and Indian suspicions that Beijing is supplying missile technology to Pakistan. ``We have never taken India as a threat nor do we intend to pose a threat to our neighbors or seek any sphere of influence,'' said Li Peng, the chairman of the Chinese People's National Congress, during a visit in New Delhi. ``We place emphasis on good neighborly relations with India.'' Activists demanding that China leave the restive Himalayan region of Tibet protested outside the India International Center during Li's speech to dignitaries on Saturday. Other activists shouted ``Free political prisoners!'' Before the event, riot police pushed back protesters from a Tibetan women's group and whisked them away in vehicles before Li arrived. India's 21-day war with China in 1962 sowed seeds of distrust manifested in an unresolved boundary dispute between the two countries. India says China illegally occupies a Maryland-sized, Himalayan region that it seized in the war. Beijing says India is holding 36,000 square miles of Chinese territory - an area the size of Indiana - in what is now India's eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. The countries have been holding talks since 1988 to settle the boundary dispute. They signed agreements in 1993 and 1996 committing themselves to the existing cease-fire line pending an eventual solution. In the past, Indian politicians - including the current defense minister - have called China India's principal enemy. India has also charged Beijing with supplying missile technology to its rival, Pakistan, a charge China denies. ``We agree India and China are lacking in mutual understanding, and to achieve better trust is a pressing task in our bilateral relations,'' Li said. ``Problems left over from history shouldn't be an impediment to good relations in the future.'' He noted both nations had experienced colonialism and said they had to pull together as globalization intensifies economic competition between rich and poor countries. ``World destiny should be in the hands of world people,'' he said. |