Influential Indian-American lawmaker Raja Krishnamoorthi has expressed concern over reports of China's continuing construction activities along the Indian border in Ladakh, saying if the reports are true, it is a "provocative measure" on the part of Beijing and fits the pattern of its conduct in the South China Sea.
"If it (reports) turns out to be true, it would be yet another provocative measure by the Chinese military to change the facts on the ground," the Democratic Congressman told Indian news agencies.
"It would also fit the pattern of their conduct in the South China Sea, where they build islands, where they try to change the facts as we previously understood them, and they would be deeply disturbing, to say the least," said Krishnamoorthi, who is the first-ever Indian-American to be on the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
India and China have been locked in a military standoff, which began in May, along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. Armies of both countries have deployed a large number of troops along the LAC.
China claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. It has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The recently concluded Malabar exercise of QUAD countries – India, Japan, Australia and the United States – is a signal that the democracies in the Indo-Pacific region will continue to stand with each other and push for a rules-based international order, the Congressman said.
