Indian troops must exit disputed region, China says
BEIJING — China on Wednesday insisted that India withdraw its troops from a disputed plateau in the Himalayan mountains before talks can take place to settle the most protracted standoff in recent years between the nuclear-armed neighbors, which fought a brief but bloody frontier war 55 years ago.
India must pull back its troops “as soon as possible” as a precondition to demonstrate sincerity, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters at a daily news briefing.
The dispute could spill over into this week’s Group 20 summit in Germany, where Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are expected to meet at a gathering of leaders from five emerging economies on the sidelines of the main event.
The monthlong standoff and unconfirmed reports of troop buildups on both sides of the border have underscored the swiftly deteriorating relations between the Asian rivals.
China complained when Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, visited the contested Arunachal Pradesh region in April. India said those complaints amounted to interference in its internal affairs.
China also expressed frustration that India has refused to join its continentwide “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure initiative, which includes a key component in Pakistan — India’s archrival but one of China’s staunchest allies.
Meanwhile, India has fumed about China using its position at the United Nations to effectively stymie India’s efforts to gain permanent membership in the Security Council.
Despite a litany of grievances on both sides, frequent clashes on the 2,174-mile shared border have been the most prominent irritant in efforts to build stable ties between the emerging economic powers, said Zhang Li, an expert on China-India relations at Sichuan University.
“The border clashes show how fragile and volatile the relationship can be,” Zhang said, noting that the latest flare-up took place in an area that had not been previously contested.
The dispute flared in June after Chinese teams began building a road on territory also claimed by Bhutan. Although China and Bhutan have spent decades negotiating the precise border without serious incident, the tiny Himalayan kingdom sought help this time from its longtime ally, India, which sent troops onto the plateau to stop the Chinese workers.
Since then, videos have emerged of Indian and Chinese soldiers blocking each other with their arms and physically jostling without coming to blows.
China retaliated by closing a nearby mountain pass that Indian pilgrims use to reach Mount Kailash, a sacred Hindu and Buddhist site in Tibet. China’s Foreign Ministry also presented to reporters historical documents that it says prove China’s claims to the plateau.
That hasn’t stopped the sniping. After Chinese officials said India should learn “historic lessons” from its defeat in the 1962 war, Indian Defense Minister Arun Jaitley shot back by saying that “India in 2017 is different from India in 1962,” in a reference to its improved military strength.
While Indian media have issued warnings about Chinese expansionism, Chinese state media have also ramped up their rhetoric, with the nationalist tabloid Global Times warning Wednesday that Beijing would make no concessions.
“The Indian military can choose to return to its territory with dignity, or be kicked out of the area by Chinese soldiers,” said the Global Times, which is published by the ruling Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
Meanwhile, the more mainstream China Daily suggested that some in the Indian military were seeking payback for a defeat in the 1962 war that proved to be “too humiliating for some.”
New Delhi has been particularly sensitive to Chinese building activity in the Doklam Plateau, which is not part of Indian territory but is a region with strategic significance.
If linked by Chinese roads, Doklam could serve as a launching point for a Chinese attack on the vital Siliguri corridor — also known as the “Chicken Neck” — that connects India’s northeast with the rest of the country, Indian analysts say. Last month, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said Chinese actions in the area had “serious security implications.”
Aside from Doklam, the countries have vast competing territorial claims. China claims about 35,000 square miles in the Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh, referred to informally by some Chinese as “Southern Tibet.”
India, meanwhile, says 15,000 square miles of the Aksai Chin plateau belongs to it.
More than a dozen rounds of talks have failed to make substantial progress in the border disputes, although there have been relatively few confrontations in recent years. India has also formally joined the Russian- and Chinese-dominated Shanghai Cooperation Organization this year alongside Pakistan.
C.V. Ranganathan, a former Indian ambassador to Beijing, said he was “baffled” by why the typical diplomatic channels that have smoothed over other flare-ups have not worked this time.
“The fact that this has lasted so long is not a good sign,” he said. “India and China’s relationship has been on a downward trend recently and this, in fact, is yet another example.”