The Indian military's trespassing into China's territory has entered the third month, with no signs of the south Asian country withdrawing its troops. The ball is now firmly in India's court.
The prerequisite for resolving the incident is clear: India must immediately and unconditionally withdraw its trespassing border troops and equipment to the Indian side of the boundary, as the Doklam (Dong Lang) region is undisputed Chinese territory.
Although China is a peace-loving country and firmly upholds peace, it will resolutely defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity and never allow any country to violate its territorial sovereignty for any reason.
The Doklam area borders India's Sikkim state to the west and the Kingdom of Bhutan to the south. The boundary has been delimited by the 1890 Convention Between Great Britain and China Relating to Sikkim and Tibet.
Both the Chinese and Indian governments recognize the convention. Each of the two sides for nearly 130 years has exercised jurisdiction over its side of the boundary without any dispute.
No matter what India believes, the fact that it illegally crossed the boundary is clear-cut, rendering any excuse - such as the claim that China's infrasructure construction activities threaten India's security - absurd.
Following India's logic, if China ever feels that India's infrastructure construction in the border region threatens Chinese security, China can openly send troops to Indian territory to stop it.
It's odd that while India has its troops broken into its neighbor's home, it continues to pose as the victim and seeks to garner sympathy.
A boundary is under the protection of international law once it is established by a convention. India's blatant move not only severely violates China's territorial sovereignty, but also poses a grave challenge to regional peace and norms governing international relations.
If India's logic is tolerated, we might as well throw international norms out the window.
So far, China has exercised utmost restraint. As a major country, there is great anticipation that India would make the responsible choice of abiding by the law rather than invoking nationalism.
