China on Wednesday reacted sharply to US secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s remarks targeting the Chinese government and backing India in facing challenges to its sovereignty, saying the comments “instigated China’s relations with other countries”.Describing the boundary issue as a “bilateral matter between China and India”, the Chinese embassy said in a statement that there is “no space for a third party to intervene” in the matter.Pompeo told the media after the India-US 2+2 dialogue on Tuesday that Washington will stand by New Delhi in confronting threats to India’s sovereignty. He also referred to the “pandemic that came from Wuhan” and described the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as “no friend to democracy [and] the rule of law”.The Chinese embassy expressed its “firm opposition” to the remarks by Pompeo and US defence secretary Mark Esper, and said they had “repeated old lies, attacked and made allegations against China, violated the norms of international relations and basic principles of diplomacy, [and] instigated China’s relations with other countries in the region”.The remarks, the statement saiadded, “again exposed their Cold War mentality and ideological bias”.The Chinese embassy stopped short of criticising India directly in any way. During the media interaction after the 2+2 meeting, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh hadn’t mentioned China in their remarks.The statement said the “boundary question is a bilateral matter between China and India”, and the two sides had been discussing disengagement and de-escalation in the border areas through diplomatic and military channels. “China and India have the wisdom and ability to handle their differences properly. There’s no space for a third party to intervene,” it said. Pompeo’s remarks came against the backdrop of the India-China military standoff in Ladakh region, which is set to enter its seventh month
