BEIJING \u2014 China\u2019s defense ministry expressed its \u201cdissatisfaction and opposition\u201d Thursday over the crash of an Indian unmanned aerial vehicle inside Chinese territory, the latest in a series of border incidents between the regional rivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinese border troops identified the device and were dealing with the matter in a \u201cprofessional and responsible manner,\u201d the official Xinhua News Agency cited the deputy chief of the Chinese military\u2019s Western Theater Command, Zhang Shuili, as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn regards to this matter, we express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition,\u201d Zhang was cited as saying in the Xinhua article posted on the ministry\u2019s website. \u201cWe will earnestly carry out our duty and resolutely defend our country\u2019s sovereignty and security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the drone crashed in the Sikkim section of China\u2019s border with India and that China has lodged a complaint with India over the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to point out that the Sikkim section of China-Indian border has been delineated. And Chinese side along the border line is Chinese territory,\u201d spokesman Geng Shuang said. \u201cThe action of the Indian side violated China\u2019s sovereignty and it\u2019s not conducive to the peace and tranquility of the border area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No further information was given about the vehicle and when it crashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Col. Aman Anand, a spokesman of India\u2019s Ministry of Defense, said the drone was on a regular training mission inside Indian territory when it \u201clost contact with the ground control due to some technical problem\u201d and crossed the border in Sikkim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anand said Indian border security personnel immediately alerted their Chinese counterparts and said India was investigating the exact cause of the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India operates a range of domestically developed UAVs and this summer agreed to buy top-of-the-line combat drones from Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much of the 3,500-kilometer (2,174-mile) border between China and India is contested. They fought a brief but bloody frontier war in 1962 and engaged in a 10-week standoff this summer high in the Himalayas over the Doklam plateau that is claimed both by China and India\u2019s ally Bhutan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China\u2019s defense ministry expressed its \u201cdissatisfaction and opposition\u201d Thursday over the crash of an Indian unmanned aerial vehicle inside Chinese territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":45,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[45,160,11,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2916],"class_list":["post-32524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"F2MIKENQZNALTNJTGVECESNTKU","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/2017\/12\/07\/china-criticizes-india-over-drone-crash-inside-border\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n