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China has quietly resumed its activities in the Doklam area and neither Bhutan nor India has sought to dissuade it, a United States Congresswoman claimed on 26 July. China has "quietly resumed" its activities in the Doklam area and neither Bhutan nor India has sought to dissuade it, she added.
The assertion made by the foreign official was denied by New Delhi on the same day.
Congresswoman Ann Wagner made the claim during a Congressional hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee for Asia and the Pacific. During the hearing, she posed a question to a State Department official, Alice G Wells, on Beijing's actions in the Himalayan region and compared them with its manoeuvres in the disputed South China Sea.
Tensions between India and China reached their peak during a 73-day standoff in Doklam near Bhutan over Beijing's construction of a road in the area. The standoff ended after both sides agreed to disengage, and there have been no confirmed or official reports of China resuming any activities since then.
Wager did not elaborate on her claim of China resuming its activities.
In her response, Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, did not directly refer to Doklam, but told Wagner and other lawmakers:
Wells said US looks to the Indo-Pacific strategy put forward by the Trump administration in light of the 'South China Sea's Strategy', a reference to China's aggressive claims of sovereignty over all of South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims.
India and China have clashed repeatedly over territories in the Himalayas. Most recently Chinese and Indian troops faced off on the disputed Doklam plateau between Bhutan and China after the Chinese People's Liberation Army began building roads through the area, Wagner said.
"How do we maintain the region to be open, to have maritime security, to not have militarisation that would imperil the 70 percent of global trade?" she asked.
"We need to do that by giving authority to sovereign nations to have choices in how they develop, to have choices in their partnerships," Wells said.
Congressman Ted Yoho, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Asia and the Pacific, raised the issue of China's aggressive posture in South Asia.
"What are your thoughts on what is the best way to counter China in that region?" Yoho asked.
"We're trying to gather likeminded countries who can bring resources to the table, who can coordinate assistance and an effort so as to provide countries with meaningful alternatives," Wells said.
Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from 16 June last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed tri-junction by the Chinese Army.
Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off ended on 28 August.
In New Delhi, Minister of State for External Affairs Ministry V K Singh told Rajya Sabha on 26 July that there have been no new developments at the site of the face-off with China in Doklam and its vicinity, and status quo prevails in the area.
Singh said in a written reply to a question on whether China has constructed new roads in the southern part of the Doklam Plateau. In a statement later, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar repeated Singh's comments.
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