China builds second village on disputed Indian border

China has built more villages in the disputed territory along its border with India and Bhutan, satellite images reveal, as it pushes an aggressive policy of expansionism in the Himalayas. After the existence of the first known Chinese-built village on disputed Indian territory was confirmed by a Pentagon report earlier this month, a second village consisting of about 60 homes has now come to light in the

Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Satellite imagery shows the village did not exist until 2019. One of the buildings has a flag of China painted on its roof, in an apparent move to assert its territorial claim.

The new cluster of houses lies 93 kilometres east of the first identified Chinese village built inside Indian territory, also in Arunachal Pradesh.

On Wednesday, Damien Symon, a global researcher with the Intel Lab, shared satellite images showing Chinese-built houses in Donglang, a disputed area with Bhutan.

The area was the site of a standoff between the Indian and Chinese armies in 2017, which was seen as a prelude to the ongoing border clashes in Ladakh, where dozens of soldiers were killed and injured in skirmishes last year.

Since then, tensions between India and China along the border — known as the Line of Actual Control — have been heightened, with both sides building up their military presence.

The new construction on Bhutanese soil is particularly worrying for India, which continues to train the country's armed forces.

Bhutan serves as a buffer between India and China. It is of high strategic importance to the Siliguri corridor, a narrow stretch of land known as the “chicken's neck” that links India's northeastern states to the rest of the country.

However, the Indian Army on Thursday claimed that the location of the new Chinese village was “north of the Line of Actual Control,” in Chinese-held territory.

India has typically denied that the villages are built on Indian land for domestic political reasons.