What’s behind tensions along India-China border
Latest row triggered by Chinese soldiers entering northern territory
NEW DELHI — Tensions along the China-India border high in the Himalayas have flared again in recent weeks.
Indian officials say the latest row began in early May, when Chinese soldiers entered the Indian-controlled territory of Ladakh at three different points, erecting tents and guard posts. They said the Chinese soldiers ignored repeated verbal warnings to depart, triggering shouting matches, stonethrowing and fist fights. China has sought to downplay the confrontation while providing little information.
Here’s a look at the history and current relations between the two countries and how events may develop:
Brawling troops
Over recent weeks, thousands of soldiers from the two countries have been facing off just a few hundred metres from each other in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. China has objected to India building a road through the valley connecting the region to an airstrip, possibly sparking its move to assert control over territory along the border that is not clearly defined in places.
Analyst Chris Biggers said that a Chinese airport nearby has steadily expanded its military use over the past year with the deployment of a surface-to-air missile battery and four fighter jets. He said recent satellite imagery of Ngari Günsa shows workers constructing a taxiway, parking ramps and “quick reaction alert aprons” but falling short of adding a second runway. While a brawl between Chinese and Indian troops has been captured on video, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday that the border situation was “generally stable and controllable.”
The sides were communicating through both their frontline military units and their respective embassies to “properly resolve relevant issues through dialogue and consultation,” Zhao said at a daily ministry news briefing in Beijing.
India and China engaged in a similar standoff for 73 days at Doklam, at the other end of their disputed border, in 2017, when Indian troops were mobilized to counter what was seen as moves by the Chinese side to expand its presence along the border with Bhutan. The situation was later defused through diplomatic channels.
War and peace between two Asian giants
The sides established diplomatic relations in 1950, but a 1962 border war between them set back ties for decades.
In all, China claims some 90,000 sq. km. of territory in India’s northeast, including the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh with its traditionally Buddhist population. India says China occupies 38,000 sq. km. of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau in the western Himalayas, including part of the Ladakh region.
Relations are also strained by India’s hosting of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 during an aborted uprising against Chinese rule.The Dalai Lama established a self-declared government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala.