India Sunday denied a media report that Chinese officials had confiscated brochures showing the Indian map from the Indian pavilion at the World Expo2010 in Shanghai.
A national daily reported that officers from China’s Public Security Bureau marched unannounced into the Indian pavilion in July. They allegedly confiscated brochures depicting the Indian map, as they showed Arunachal Pradesh, claimed by Beijing, as a part of India.
Reacting to the report, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash denied that there was ever such an event.
“There is no factual basis to this report. There has been no interference in the functioning of our pavilion at the Shanghai Expo,” he added.
The report comes on the heels of India Friday putting all future defence exchanges with China on hold after Beijing refused to welcome an army general as he had Jammu and Kashmir under his command, well informed sources said.
Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, who heads the Northern Command that guards the borders with China and Pakistan, had been nominated to travel to China for a regular high-level defence exchange visit.
“Sometime, in July, we were informed that it would be difficult to take the visit forward since he (Jaswal) looked after an area which is ‘difficult’,” said the sources, adding that it was tantamount to saying that India was in adverse possession of Kashmir.
India also refused visas to three Chinese army officers – two captains and a colonel – to visit defence establishments in this country.
