Damaging ties with China will 'hurt' India, warns Beijing

Protesting Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, China on Friday warned India to avoid damaging bilateral relations between the two nations and adhere to political pledges, or else face the consequences.

"Therefore, we have asked India to earnestly honor its political pledges and avoid damaging China-India relations. Otherwise, India only stands to get hurt," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang's told a press conference on Friday.

"Relations can only be developed on the basis of adhering to certain principles. As you just said, in the past, things that provoked China's firm opposition did occur, and they did cause harm to China-India relations," he added.

While China claims Arunachal Pradesh as Southern Tibet, India asserts that the dispute covered Aksai Chin area which was occupied by China during the 1962 war.

The spokesperson accused the Dalai group of been long engaged in anti-China and separatist.

"India is very clear about the seriousness of issues related to the 14th Dalai Lama and the sensitivity of its border issues with China. Under such circumstances, India still invites the 14th Dalai Lama to visit disputed areas of China-India borders. This will gravely damage the peace and stability of the border regions between China and India and China-India relations," he said.

Kang added that China firmly opposes the 14th Dalai Lama's visit to areas where the two neighbours have territorial disputes.

"We again urge India to stick to its political commitment on Tibet-related issues and our important consensus on border issues, not to make any move that could further complicate the border issues, and not to give the group of the 14th Dalai Lama a stage to carry out anti-China and separatist activities, so that we can maintain the healthy and steady growth of China-India relations," he added.