Shanthi Rajagopal
Before his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Brazil, on April 14, 2010 in Washington DC, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India and China were working hard to find a pragmatic solution to the border issue and were working closely on a variety of global issues, including climate change. There have been stressful relations between the two countries last year over a variety of issues that included an increase in Chinese intrusion into India’s borders.
China’s rising assertion over its claims to Arunachal Pradesh and Beijing’s opposition to a development loan from the Asian Development Bank on grounds that a part of it was meant for Arunachal Pradesh have been causes for dissention between the two Asian countries.
Since then, both Asian countries have been working hard, trying to repair and strengthen their ties, and observed the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations with each other. Manmohan Singh told journalists at the conclusion of his four day visit to the US that India and China are working hard to resolve the existing border issue and find a pragmatic solution and added that it will take time to find a resolution.
The Prime minister stressed that both sides have decided to maintain peace and tranquility along the Line of Control while waiting for the resolution of the border dispute.
Manmohan Singh and Hu met at the 47-nation Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, but have decided to hold their bilateral talks on the sidelines of BRIC summit of Brazil, India, Russia and China.Manmohan Singh very positively expressed that on the economic front the relationship between India and China has progressed.
The McMahon Line boundary argument has always been the reason of disagreement between China and India. Due to historical reasons China has land and sea boundary issues with 14 neighbors. The Chinese laid territorial claims on land that India considers as its own. Of them one is in the western sector, Aksai Chin situated in the northeastern section of Ladakh District in Jammu and Kashmir. The other claim is in the eastern sector over a region included in the British-designated North-East Frontier Agency, the disputed part of which India renamed Arunachal Pradesh and made into a state. During a fight over these territories in 1962, the efficient and well equipped troops of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army overpowered the Indian troops, who were not only poorly equipped but were also in adept at fighting at high altitudes.
Britain tried to advance its line of control and established buffer zones around its colony in South Asia during the early 20th century. In the year 1913-1914 representatives of China, Tibet and Britain negotiated the Simla Convention. Sir Henry McMahon, the foreign secretary of British India at the time, drew up the 550 mile (890 km) McMahon Line as the border between British India and Tibet during the Simla Conference. The McMahon Line separated the former unclaimed and undefined borders between Britain and Tibet. and moved British control to the north. The Tibetan and British representatives at the conference concurred upon the line, which allowed Tawang and other Tibetan areas to the imperial British Empire. The Chinese representative rejected the line and Peking claimed territory in the north down to the border of the Assam plain the land is mostly rugged and mountainous terrain with the Himalayas along the northern borders, cutting across with mountain ranges running north-south. This terrain splits the state into five river valleys: the Kameng, the Subansiri, the Siang, the Lohit and the Tirap. Steep mountains and dense forests have prevented interaction between tribes living in the various river valleys. Geographical isolation thus imposed has led different tribes to develop their own dialects and grow with their individual identities. A slow forward move towards the McMahon Line was begun on the ground, to establish a new de facto boundary. The McMahon Line took a backseat and was forgotten until about 1935 when the British government decided to publish the documents in the 1937 edition of Aitchison’s Collection of Treaties. The NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) was created in 1954. On 7 November 1959, Chou En-lai proposed that both sides should withdraw their troops twenty kilometers from the McMahon line. During the decade of cordial Sino-Indian relations, the issue was silent but erupted again during the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and during the war in 1962, the PRC captured most of the NEFA. China soon declared victory and voluntarily withdrew back to the McMahon Line.
China is in occupation of approximately 38,000 sq. kms of Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir. In addition, under the so-called China-Pakistan “Boundary Agreement” of 1963, Pakistan allowed 5,180 sq. kms of Indian territory in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to China. China claims approximately 90,000 sq. kms. of Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh and about 2000 sq. kms in the Middle Sector of the India-China boundary though Beijing has stated that it does not recognize Arunachal Pradesh.
The border between China and India has never been officially demarcated, and so China’s position on the eastern part of the border between the two countries has been consistent. Chinese government does not recognize the McMahon Line’s illegality. As far as China is concerned, the McMahon Line stands as a symbol of imperialist aggression on the country. The so-called “Arunachal Pradesh” dispute is China’s most intractable border issue. Because the gap between the positions of China and India is wide, it is difficult for both nations to reach agreement. The area of this disputed region is three times larger than Taiwan, six times that of Beijing and ten times that of the Malvenas islands, which are not agreeable for Britain and Argentina. It is flat and rich in resources like water and forests.
Arunachal Pradesh is the single issue which has a potential for conflict between India and China .In the probability of war between India and China, this issue could be a reason. India considers repeated Sino-Indian border clashes a potential red flag to its security. Since the war, each side continuously improved its military and logistics capabilities in the disputed regions. China has continued its occupation of the Aksai Chin area, through which it built a strategic highway linking Xizang and Xinjiang .China had a vital military interest in maintaining control over this region, whereas India’s primary interest lay in Arunachal Pradesh, its state in the northeast bordering Xizang Autonomous Region.
An armed attack at Nathu La in eastern Sikkim in 1967 barring, the border between India and China (Tibet) and the vaguely defined Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh/Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh – had been free of any major incidents through the 1970s and the early 1980s. While relations between the two countries remained not very cordial official statements from Beijing and New Delhi professed a desire to solve the border tangle peacefully through mutual consultations. In December 1981, officials from both countries held yearly talks on the border issue.
With improving logistics from the Indian side, the Indian Army sought to reinforce and strengthen forward areas in Arunachal Pradesh in the early 1980s. Patrols resumed in 1981 and by the summer of 1984 India had established an observation post on the bank of the Sumdorong Chu, according to Chinese media. By September-October 1986, a group of the Indian Army 5 Mountain Division was lifted by helicopters to Zimithang, a helipad very close to the S-C valley. Referred to as Operation Falcon, this involved the occupation of ridges overlooking the S-C valley, including Langrola and the Hathung La ridge .This was followed by reports of large-scale troop movements on both sides of the border in early 1987, and serious concerns about a possible military clash over the border were felt.
In February 1987, India established the so-called Arunachal Pradesh in its Chinese-claimed territories south of the McMahon Line. After these events, and India’s conversion of Arunachal Pradesh from union territory to state, tensions between China and India have risen significantly. Both nations moved to reinforce their capabilities in the area, but neither ruled out further negotiations of their fights.
China, has a large military presence in Tibet, and moved in 20,000 troops from the 53rd Army Corps in Chengdu and the 13th Army in Lanzhou by early 1987, with the aid of heavy artillery and helicopters. By early April, it had moved 8 divisions to eastern Tibet as a prelude to possible belligerent action. India’s Operation Falcon massive air-land exercise in 1986 involved 10 Divisions of the Indian Army and several squadrons of the IAF. The Indian Army moved 3 divisions to positions around Wangdung, where they were supplied solely by air. These reinforcements were over and above the 50,000 troops already present across Arunachal Pradesh.
Although India enjoyed air superiority in 1987, between the two military forces, which had a combined total of nearly 400,000 troops near the border parity on the ground existed. The Indian Army positioned eleven divisions in the region, backed by paramilitary forces, whereas the PLA had available fifteen divisions for operations on the border. It is believed that the mountainous terrain, high-altitude climate, and logistic difficulties made it unlikely that a protracted conflict would erupt on the Sino-Indian border.
Citing an example of cordial neighborly relations Sino-Indian border has not suffered any major disturbances since 1986, as compared to the continuous firing incidents and infiltration on the Indo-Pak borders. In December 1988, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited China and the Prime Ministers of the two countries agreed to settle the boundary questions through the guiding principle of “Mutual Understanding and Accommodation and Mutual Adjustment”. They mutually agreed that while seeking for the mutually acceptable resolution to the boundary questions, the two countries should develop their relations in other fields in efforts to create conducive atmosphere with respect to the settlement of the boundary questions. The two countries decided to establish a Joint Working Group (JWG) regarding the boundary questions at the Vice-Foreign Ministerial level.
On 7 September 1993 an Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China Border Areas was signed. After more than three decades of border tension, high-level bilateral talks were held in New Delhi starting in February 1994 to develop confidence-building measures between the defense forces of India and China. This gave birth to a new period of better relations. In November 1995, the two sides dismantled the guard posts in close proximity to each other along the borderline in Wangdong area, stabilizing the border .In a move to build better relationship of trust during President Jiang Zemin’s visit to India at the end of November 1996, the Governments of China and India signed the Agreement on Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field along the Line of Actual Control in the China-India Border Areas. These Agreements provide an institutional framework for the maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas.
Despite a lot of efforts that have been done during the Sino-Indian official border talks, the border issue remains bogged down in various bilateral and domestic contradictions on both sides. Border ‘encounters’ between India and China do happen occasionally and arise from the very real disagreements that exist between the two sides in demarcating the LCA on the ground. Such incidents have usually been handled, by the two sides discreetly withdrawing to their earlier positions and without involving the media’s attention.
According to news sources the two sides withdrew sentries along the eastern section that were considered close to each other. During early 1990s, India unilaterally withdrew about 35,000 troops from its eastern sector. On the other hand, the PLA maintains a force between 180,000 and 300,000 soldiers and has directly ruled Tibet from 1950 to 1976, and indirectly thereafter. Tibet today is connected to other military regions through four-lane highways and strategic roads. And Beijing’s capability to airlift troops from its other neighboring military regions has developed extensively from its former inability to implement air force in 1962.
During the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to China in June 2003 India and China signed a Memorandum on Expanding Border Trade, which adds Nathula as another pass on the India-China border for conducting trade along the border .India has agreed to designate Changgu of Sikkim state as the venue for border trade market, while the Chinese side has agreed to designate Renqinggang of the Tibet Autonomous Region as the venue for border trade market.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India in April 2005, and during this visit the two sides signed an agreement on political settlement of the boundary issue while setting guidelines and principles. As part of the agreement, China and India affirmed their readiness to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary issue through friendly negotiations.
To rectify the situation arising out of poor road connectivity which has hampered the operational capability of the Border Guarding Forces deployed along the India-China border, the Government has decided to undertake phase-wise construction of 27 road links totaling 608 Km in the border areas along the India-China border in the States of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs.912.00 crores. The construction of two roads in Arunachal Pradesh has started. The construction of these roads was expected to start during 2008-09.
The two nations perceive differently the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China border areas and do patrolling activity in the India-China border areas. LAC incursions and issues are taken up through diplomatic channels and at Border Personnel Meetings/Flag Meetings. According to news sources India and China resolve to seek reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement of the boundary question through amicable talks. According to news sources good economic growth in China and India is under severe threat because of the global financial crisis, and both countries have more pressing concerns than a border dispute. But despite the unresolved border issues, the two countries are trying to foster greater cooperation. It cannot be denied that the two are also major rivals.
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