BEIJING, Feb 24 (AFP): China Monday rejected remarks by Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi that it has an "expansionist mindset", saying it has "never" grabbed the territory of another nation.
"I believe all of you can see that China has never waged a war of aggression to occupy any inch of land of other countries," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing.
Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and favourite to win this year's polls, was speaking during an election rally on Saturday.
He warned China to shed its "expansionist mindset" as he toured the remote northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, an eastern stretch of the Himalayas that China claims as its own.
"The world has changed. An expansionist mindset will not be accepted. China will also have to do away with such a mindset," Modi said.
"Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and will always remain so. No power can snatch it away from us."
China and India fought a brief, bloody border war in 1962 over Arunachal Pradesh and now share a de facto frontier known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which has never been formally demarcated.
China rejects Indian politician\\\'s expansionism charge
FE Team | Published: February 25, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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