Anxious Tiger, Leering Dragon: The Indian and Chinese Border Part II

The Past

In this second installment of our three part series on the Indo-Sino border conflict, we examine the origin of the 190 years old dispute, in order to fleshing-out the historical twist and turns  that have brought these two rising powers to their present situation.

This conflict was engendered by growing British power in northern India and Southeast Asia in the 19th century.  In 1846, the British took control of much of  Aksai Chin from the Sikh Confederacy, but after some years ceded most of  the area to Chinese control, during the ‘Great Game”,  to create a  buffer zone between itself and the growing Russian sphere of influence in Central Asia.  However, the border was never firmly defined by either side, partly because Chinese sovereignty over the region fluctuated due to conflict between the Chinese Qing Dynasty and break away minority regions.    In 1954,  seven years after Indian Independence, the New Delhi claimed all of Aksai Chin as a historical part of India and began changing it’s maps to include the region.   This appears to have been an overreach, as a significant section of the northern part of the provinces had long been in Chinese control, even before  the British.  India based its claim on British proposals from 1865, the “Johnson Line“, which completely ignored later revisions that handed the land to China.  Two years later, China began constructing a road through the region to link it’s recently recaptured “provinces of Xinjiang (East Turkestan) and Tibet (Xizang).  India protested this move, but  sought a diplomatic solution for a time.

Arunachal Pradesh is a bit more complicated.  After the British seized Assam from the Burmese  during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26), for almost a century, London discussed the border  of its new expanded “Indian ” possession with Tibetan and Chinese government officials.  The new border with the semi-autonomous region of Tibet would lie  within present day area of Arunachal Pradesh.  The British would call this, the “McMahon Line”, which was created in 1914.   The Chinese government refused to recognize the border, because it was negotiated between the British and Tibetan officials  Beijing did not recognize Tibet’s sovereignty, because as with many areas of  the then defunct Qing Dynasty China that had broken away, the Chinese government still claimed it.   After independence, India held the British view that the Himalayas were the traditional boundary between China and India, and began patrolling the region according to the McMahon Line.   China, under new communist leadership, and  now back in control of Tibet, argued that the disputed areas were culturally an extension of Tibet since ancient times. Both arguments have some validity, hence the source of the conflict.

In 1959, India gave asylum to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dali Lama, after the Tibetan Uprising against communist rule from Beijing.  India also constructed.  China was extremely critical of both actions.  This is when things began to unravel.    There was a brief border clash in the area, which left several Indian police dead.  By 1960, China formally claimed all of Aksai Chin and moved troops into the area.  India demanded that China pull all troops out, believing China had no legitimate claim to the region.

Tensions and border skirmishes escalated, resulting in a few dozen deaths on both sides.  China began to see India’s “forward positions” and rhetoric as proof that India was trying to conspire with the United States, and possibly the USSR, to take control of Tibet.  It seems that Beijing was a bit paranoid, but only in the extent of India’s aggression.  The Chinese felt that they had to stand their ground or risk further Indian expansion into what they considered Chinese territory.  New Delhi clearly believed the territory was Indian,  and they were simply asserting their rights.

By the summer of 1962, India moved to cut off Chinese supply lines, which led to a Chinese attack on Indian forces in Aksai Chin and ‘South Tibet” (Arunachal Pradesh), resulting in a brief , but sustained  conflict, albeit without use of air support nor a cut off of diplomatic relations.  China captured and moved troops into a large, but sparely inhabited, area of Aksai Chin.   Rubbing salt in India’ s wound, a year later,  India’s nemesis, Pakistan ceded to China the Trans-Karakoram Tract, roughly 2000 square miles (3200 km²) of territory along the Shaksgam River, which is adjacent to Aksai China.   This is also an area India still claims.  In the aftermath, China maintained control of the area it previously occupied and gained a bit of land.  More importantly, no mutually recognized border was agreed on after the ceasefire.

Despite another brief conflict in ’67, the two nations  have seen a thaw in diplomatic relations by 1976.  No major diplomatic  breakthroughs on the border issue came until 2005, when India and China issued a  joint declaration during a visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to  India.  The two sides agreed to work toward demarcating the line of control, as part of their new “strategic partnership”.  The historic Silk Road trade route through the area was also reopened in 2006.   However, the same year,  the Chinese ambassador to India reasserted that  all of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory.

A new row began last year.  This time, India protested against the Chinese practice of issuing visas to some Kashmiris on separate pieces of paper, unlike the standard visas it offered to other Indians. – a not-so-subtle message  from Beijing concerning India’s sovereignty over the disputed regions.  After India appealed to China through diplomatic channels, to no avail, they issued a travel advisory warning to their citizens: