China on Thursday said that Army Chief General Bipin Rawat's comment that Beijing was testing India's limits was contrary to the views expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Xiamen this week. Rawat had said on Wednesday that it is a myth that nuclear-armed democracies will not go to war, and warned of a two-front war with China and Pakistan. Referring to China, he had said, "flexing of muscles" has started and "salami slicing" will gradually turn to taking over territory. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, "...we don't know whether he was authorised to say those words or it was just his spontaneous words or... they represented the position of the government."

Rawat had also warned that Pakistan could take advantage of the situation on the Chinese frontier. "We have to be prepared on both fronts," Rawat had said at a seminar organised by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies in New Delhi.

Referring to the remarks expressed by Xi and Modi during their first meeting following the end of a 73-day standoff between the militaries of the two countries at Doklam, Geng noted that China and India are important neighbours and are two large countries. He said sound and steady development of ties serves the fundamental interests of both countries. This is what the international community wishes to see, he said.

"Just two days ago, President Xi Jinping pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the two countries are each other's development opportunities, not threats," Geng said.

"We hope India could view China's development in a correct and rational way. We need to show to the world that peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation is the only right choice for the two countries," Geng quoted Xi as telling Modi during their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.

"We should respect each other, seek common ground and shelve differences, preserve peace and tranquillity of the border area," Xi had said.

Prime Minister Modi had also said that the Indian side is willing to work with China to maintain steady development of bilateral ties, Geng said.

"We should not treat each other as rivals. We should make cooperation the mainstream and the two sides should work together to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas," Geng said.

"Hope that this military official would see clearly this trend and contribute to development of China and India relations and see something more in that regard," he said.

(With PTI inputs)