India slams China’s new boundary law amid border tensions

By ASHOK SHARMA
Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — India is criticizing China for passing a new land boundary law which it says could impact the two countries’ long-running border dispute. An Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson says India expects that China will avoid taking actions under the new law that could unilaterally alter the situation in India-China border areas. Talks between Indian and Chinese army commanders to disengage troops from key areas along their border ended in a stalemate earlier this month, failing to ease a 17-month standoff that has sometimes led to deadly clashes, Chinese lawmakers approved the law at a meeting on Sunday of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress. It stipulates that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China are sacred and inviolable.