Chinese company sacks Indian employees in Doha, Tehran: sources
Sources said the Indo-China border dispute could be behind the firing of Indian employees
August 16, 2017
A major telecommunication company of China has reportedly fired all its Indian-origin employees from its offices in Doha and Tehran, Geo News reported on Wednesday.
Sources said the development has not been confirmed at an official level.
Alleged stealing of Chinese technology by the Indian staffers and/or the recent Indo-China border dispute was said to be the reason behind the sacking, according to sources.
China has insisted that India unilaterally withdraw its troops from the remote Doklam plateau claimed by both Beijing and Indian ally Bhutan.
But China did not respond to India's suggestion in recent talks that it move its troops back 250 metres in return, said a source with close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in a report last week.
In the low-key diplomatic manoeuvres that took place outside the public eye, the Chinese countered with an offer to move back 100 metres so long as they received clearance from top government officials.
But there has been no comeback since, except for China's mounting warnings of an escalation in the region, which it calls Donglang.
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry said the country would never give up any territory.
Indian troops went into Doklam in mid-June to stop a Chinese construction crew from extending a road India's military says will bring China's army too close for comfort in the northeast.
Their faceoff since, military experts say, is the most serious since going toe-to-toe in the 1980s, with thousands of soldiers each, elsewhere along the 3,500km border.
The border crisis caps a year of souring diplomatic ties between the Asian giants, even though trade between the fast growing economies is rising rapidly.
Modi refused to join President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road initiative to knit together Asia and beyond, making India the lone country to boycott a summit in May this year.
China has warned New Delhi not to be drawn into a Western military alliance led by the United States and including Japan. Modi has sought closer ties with both.
