Will keep building infrastructure in Doklam, India should not comment: China
Beijing, Jan 19 (IANS): China on Friday said it will keep building infrastructure in Doklam and India has no business to comment on construction activity on Chinese territory.
Some satellite images purportedly show massive infrastructure build-up in Doklam, as close as 81 meters to the point of face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the disputed plateau last year.
"I don't know who offers such kind of photos. I don't know the detailed information," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said when asked about the images.
"You must be quite clear. Donglong (Doklam) always belongs to China and is always under China's effective jurisdiction. There is no dispute in this regard," Lu said.
"China is exercising its sovereignty in its own territory. It's legitimate and justified. Just as China will not make comments about Indian construction of infrastructure on India's territory, we hope other countries will not make comment on China's construction of infrastructure on its territory," Lu said.
India and Chinese troops were locked in a 73-day stand-off at Doklam, which is claimed by Bhutan.
The face-off began when the Indian military halted road building by the Chinese at Doka La in the region which is very close to India's highway.
Even as both sides resolved the crisis by retreating from the point of face-off in August, news reports suggested that China was busy building infrastructure to fortify its position in the region.
Sri Lanka, China to co-build power plant: Meanwhile, Sri Lanka and China on Friday signed a joint venture agreement to construct Sri Lanka's largest dendro power plant in the country's south.
The power plant will produce 70,000 megawatts of renewable energy a year to the national power grid.
The joint venture was signed between Beijing Full Dimension Power Tech Co Ltd, Nanjing Turbine and Electric Machinery Group Co Ltd and Sri Lanka's IMS Holdings, Xinhua news agency reported.
Speaking at the ceremony, Jinawara Dharmawardana, Chairman of IMS Holdings, said dendro power was the generation of electricity from sustainably grown biomass (fuel wood) and in this project the fuel would be produced from the wood of the Gliricidia Sepium tree.
Hu Xingzhong, chairman of the Beijing Full Dimension Power Tech Co Ltd, said the project was of "great significance" not only to the partners but also to the two countries.
The power plant will consist of six biomass boilers and three steam turbine generators as the core of the power generation system. The dendro power plant is expected to start operation by the end of September.
