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India invaded China, its N-weapons pose great danger, says Xinhua

The Chinese official news agency, Xinhua, yesterday charged India with having invaded China in 1962 and occupied 90,000 sq km of territory.

Xinhua further alleged that after gaining independence, the Indian government kept pushing forward its northern boundary and thus illegally occupied some 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory.

Calling the McMohan line as illegal, Xinhua alleged that in October 1962, the Indian government continued its policy of expansionism and started a full-scale war by invading China

The signed commentary put out by the agency also said a new nuclear-weapon India poses a fresh threat to China and its neighbours, and urged India to stop immediately the development of nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the Indian ministry of external affairs has reserved comment on the outburst. An official MEA spokesperson told reporters that comment on the matter was being reserved today, and indicated that a senior official was likely to make a statement on the matter tomorrow.

The Bharatiya Janata Party today expressed surprise at China's latest stand that India had occupied vast stretches of its land.

Reacting to the allegations, BJP vice-president K L Sharma told newspersons that this was for the first time since 1962 that such a statement had emanated from Beijing. It was a widely accepted fact that China had launched an unprovoked attack upon India "in gross betrayal of the Hindi-Chini bhai bhai spirit". That action had so shocked the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that he could not fully recover from it.

Aksai Chin is still under their occupation, Sharma pointed out, and added that China was trying to rewrite history. The aggressor is trying to pretend that he is the sufferer, he pointed out.

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