China welcomes lifting of emergency in Maldives

China today welcomed Maldivian President Abdullah Yameen's decision to lift the emergency and reiterated Beijing's stand that the Maldives government and the country's political parties can resolve their differences.

"China welcomes Maldives lifting emergency and restoring normal social order," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told media briefing here today.

"The Maldives government and the political parties have the wisdom and capability to properly resolve their differences through dialogue and consultations and jointly uphold the stability and social harmony of Maldives," she said.

China had backed President Yameen when he declared the emergency in the island nation on February 5 after the Supreme Court ordered the release of a group of opposition leaders, who had been convicted in widely-criticised trials.

Yameen also arrested two judges of the Supreme Court as well as former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and other opposition leaders.

Another former president Mohamed Nasheed who was in exile abroad had called for Indian intervention in Maldives to save the democracy in the island nation. He had alleged that China is indulging in land grabbing, threatening not just the Maldives, but the peace and the stability of the entire region.

China has invested heavily in Maldives in various projects and regards the island nation with 26 atolls and about 1,000 small islands as key to its Maritime Silk Road project in the Indian Ocean as it has already acquired Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.