India and China have held several rounds of military talks to resolve the dispute over Line of Actual Control (LAC), but both the countries have not been yet successful. The crux of the problem is the undefined nature of the Himalayan border. There was a clash between the Indian and Chinese soldiers along the LAC in December 2022 at the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh. In this sector, there are areas of differing perception, where both sides patrol the area to their claim lines since 2006. After the recent incident, the Chinese and Indian military commanders met again to defuse any further escalation. However, no consensus on this issue has been reached as of now.
Origin of India-China Border Dispute
After the communist party took power in China in 1949, they pulled China out of all international agreements, and the ‘unequal treaties’ imposed during its ‘Century of Humiliation’ and demanded a re-negotiation of all its borders. In 1960, the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party reached out to India to resolve the border issue through mutual understanding and mutual concessions. The then Chinese premier, Zhou Enlai, and the then Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, agreed on a detailed examination of the claims by the officials. Over the next two years, both the countries sought to preserve their claims by posting troops along the border. However, in the 1962 Indo-China War, Chinese army overpowered the Indian troops.
The ‘Century of Humiliation’ is a period between 1839 and 1949 when China’s government lost control over large portions of its territory at the hands of foreigners.
Issues between India and China
Line of Actual Control (LAC) The LAC is the demarcation that separates the Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory. It is divided into three sectors, viz., the eastern sector which comprises Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim; the middle sector consisting of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh; and the western sector in Ladakh. India considers the LAC to be 3,488 km long, but China considers it to be only around 2,000 km. The LAC is more heavily contested in the western sector, where more frequent incursions occur than in the eastern sector. As for the middle sector, there is the least disagreement.
The alignment of the LAC in the eastern sector is along the 890-km long McMahon Line, drawn by the then Foreign Secretary of British India, Sir Henry McMahon, as the border between British India and Tibet at the 1914 Shimla Convention between Great Britain, China, and Tibet.
In November 1959, Chinese premier Zhou wrote to Nehru, stating the LAC was the so-called McMahon Line in the east and the line up to which each side exercised actual control in the west. Rejecting this during the 1962 War, Nehru stated that it was pointless that the Chinese had offered to withdraw 20 km from what the Chinese called the ‘Line of Actual Control’. During the war, the Chinese had blatantly advanced about 40–60 km and had offered to withdraw 20 km.
In 1991, the LAC was discussed during the Chinese premier, Li Peng’s visit to India. Then in 1993, India formally accepted the concept of LAC when Indian prime minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, paid a return visit to China. Both the countries signed the agreement on the maintenance of peace and tranquillity along the LAC. However, the reference to the LAC was unqualified to make it clear that it was not referring to the LAC of 1959 or 1962, but to the LAC at the time when the agreement was signed.
China’s Claim on Arunachal Pradesh Not only that, China also claims about 90,000 sq. km of Arunachal Pradesh, the entire state, as its territory. China named the area as ‘Zangnan’ in the Chinese language, and often refers to it as ‘Southern Tibet’. The LAC runs through the stretches of extraordinarily remote and mountainous terrain. The eastern sector, Tawang, is at the edge of Arunachal Pradesh. As part of its unilateral claims, China keeps naming places in Arunachal Pradesh in Chinese language. And India dismisses all these names, stating that Arunachal Pradesh has always been and would always be an integral part of India.
The Tibet After the communist government came into power in 1949, the Chinese representative did not consent to the 1914 Simla Convention, consented to by a diplomat of the Republic of China, which came into power in 1912 after the end of the Qing dynasty. As per the convention, Tibet had no independent authority to enter into international agreements.
The relatively flat Tibetan plateau acts as a wall to the Chinese side of the LAC. China has constructed a modern transit network to rapidly ferry troops across different border sectors. Defending the LAC, thus, becomes extremely difficult for India. Tawang is of crucial importance for both China and India for having an important Tibetan Buddhist monastery, where the sixth Dalai Lama is believed to have been born during 1683.
Steady and significant investments in enhanced border defence infrastructure by the Chinese and Indian armies have brought their forces into more frequent contact. This also provided incentives for each side to fight for tactical advantage. Though India has managed to reinforce LAC positions in the western region, Arunachal Pradesh, too, has always been vulnerable.
Maps of the LAC
Maps for the middle sector have been exchanged by the two countries. As for the western sector, maps were shared but never exchanged formally. Since 2002, even the process of clarifying the LAC has effectively stopped. There is no publicly available map which depicts India’s version of the LAC. LAC is not the claim line for India. India’s claim line includes Aksai Chin and Gilgit-Baltistan and is seen in the official boundary marked on the maps as released by the Survey of India.
In China’s case, LAC corresponds mostly to its claim line. But in the eastern sector, China claims the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet.
In July 1954, maps were examined and a new map was published in India which show our northern and north-eastern frontiers without any reference to any line. Officially, that map is used till today, and it led to the 1962 War.
Impact of Recent Clashes
Since 1993, both India and China have had a series of agreements to manage their disputed border. In 2005, both the sides had agreed on a protocol to implement their border management commitments. Both the countries set rules in the bilateral agreements that they would not use firearms and both of them have kept up on their commitment.
However, after the clash between the Indian and the Chinese troops, the Sino-India relations have reached a new low. Even with tactical de-escalation, the strategic escalation of tensions between the two neighbours continues with substantial upgrades of military infrastructure and the permanent deployments of additional troops to the area.
Consequently, India restricted Chinese investments into its technology and infrastructure sectors by banning several Chinese apps. Across the Indo-Pacific regions, for maritime security, India, along with other QUAD countries (Australia, Japan, and the US), has strengthened its military and technology cooperation. The QUAD nations seek to compete with China for influence and deter Chinese aggression in the region.
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