A spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing, Zhu Bangzao, in reply to a question, said Fernandes' ``accusations regarding China's relations with other countries is utterly fictitious and entirely baseless. (They)... have seriously sabotaged the favourable atmosphere for improving bilateral relations between China and India. And China cannot but express its utmost regret and resentment.''

The official Chinese remarks were, however, received with unusual silence in New Delhi. Attempting to control the damage that has resulted over the Beijing-Fernandes spat, the official spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) here only said : ``We have taken note of the statement.''

The Chinese reaction, the second in the last month onFernandes, came in reaction to reported comments by the Defence Minister about China being India's main threat, having encircled it from Tibet, the North-East as well as in the Bay of Bengal.

Fernandes himself is touring the Andamans islands and ministry officials, who have been carrying out a fire-fighting exercise over Fernandes and his views about China for the last two weeks, refused further comment. There was some speculation that Prime Minister Vajpayee had been wanting to speak to his Defence Minister on his return from Gandhinagar last evening, but Fernandes had already left on his tour.

The Government's central concern today is that China's anger over Fernandes' statements could well take the form of stoking the fires of insurgency in the North-Eastern states. Ministry sources pointed out that the Chinese were supplying arms to insurgent groups in Nagaland, Manipur and Assam. But the sources, seeking to put a perspective on the issue, said the Chinese reaction was actually a ``normal'' one, thatit was not unusual for Beijing to get belligerent when it perceived it was being the focus of outside criticism.

The sources also pointed out a nuance in Beijing's reaction: The criticism was directed at Fernandes, not at the Government of India, perhaps implying that it understood the trials of running a multi-party coalition government.

Chinese team

Unaffected by the storm stirred by Fernandes, a five-member team led by Vice Minister Feng Tiyun is in India for a nine-day visit -- sightseeing, shopping and studying Indian efforts at tackling corruption.

Feng has held discussions with officials from the Central Vigilance Commission and CBI. The visit takes place under a MoU signed in 1992. The Chinese team called on Minister of State for Personnel KMR Janardhanan.