China not strategic threat to India: Chinese Ambassador

China's ambassador to India, Sun Weidong

New Delhi, July 31: China is not a strategic threat to India, said Chinese ambassador to India Sun Weidong said on Thursday, stressing that Beijing was committed to peaceful development and asked India to avoid "whirlpool of suspicion and confrontation".

Addressing a webinar on India-China relations more than a month after armed clashes along the border in Ladakh, Weidong said an "invisible virus", a reference to the Covid-19 pandemic, is a bigger threat than China.

"To move China-India relations forward, I believe that we need to straighten our views on several key issues. First, China is committed to peaceful development, and is not a "strategic threat" to India," he said in a tweet after the webinar.

"Invisible virus rather than China is the threat. It is short-sighted & harmful to deny long history of peaceful co-existence between China & India & portray our friendly neighbour for thousands of years as opponent & strategic threat due to temporary differences & difficulties," he added.

China has firmly safeguard its national sovereignty, security and development interests. We have never been aggressive & pursued own development at expense of other countries.

"Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, & Xizang affairs are totally China's internal affairs & bear on China's sovereignty & security. While China doesn't interfere in other country's internal affairs, it allows no external interference & never trades its core interests either," the envoy tweeted.