This is not the first time that China has raised a dispute on the India-China border. In the eastern and northeastern regions of India, China has been at loggerheads with India on this issue for almost seven decades.
This time, due to violent clashes in the Galvan valley of Ladakh, the border dispute reached the international level, even before in 2003, China had declared Sikkim’s accession to India illegal, China has also claimed Sikkim. He still considers the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh a part of South Tibet. There are often minor disputes over the Nathula border of Sikkim bordering Tibet.
Actually, the border of India is not adjacent to China, but to Tibet. All these disputes started only after China’s occupation of Tibet in 1950. In 1959, after the Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama reached India on foot through the Arunachal border, bitterness about the border increased. Now, in the latest case, the border dispute with Bhutan is being considered as part of the Chinese strategy to pressure India on the Arunachal issue.
Controversy started after 1950
India did not have any dispute with China until the year 1950, it is because of this that India has no border with China in the past. At that time, the 543 km long route from Nathula in Sikkim to Tibet reaching southwest China was called the Silk Route.
This road has been the lifeline of the economy of these three regions for more than 1900 years, but after the occupation of Tibet in 1950, the dispute started over the border of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, after the 1962 war in India and abroad. The famous Silk Route was also closed, although it was later reopened in 2006, it is often closed. Mansarovar Yatra also started from the same road a few years ago.
After the occupation of Tibet, Chinese eyes have always been on Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. After the capture of Tibet, Mao and other Chinese leaders had said that Tibet is a palm, now it is to capture these five fingers. The eastern region also has a long history of skirmishes between the Indian and Chinese military.
Violent clashes took place between September 11 and September 15, 1967 at the Nathula border post in Sikkim. Then in October of that year, there were attacks in Cho La. On 20 October 1975, four Indian soldiers were killed in an attack by Chinese soldiers at Tulung La in Arunachal. After this, 10 jawans were injured in the clash along the Chinese border in this May also.
China again claimed the disputed area
The latest border dispute with Bhutan began last month when China objected to the allocation of funds for the Sakateng Wildlife Sanctuary project located in the eastern part of Bhutan at a meeting of the Global Environment Facility Council (GEFC).
It said that it was a disputed area. Bhutan then strongly opposed it, after which China has once again claimed its disputed territory. It is a matter of concern for India that the said wildlife sanctuary, spread over 650 square kilometres in the district of Trasigang in the eastern region of Bhutan, is adjacent to Arunachal Pradesh, China showed Arunachal in its map in 2014.
Political analysts say that China’s objective is to increase pressure on India on the issue of Arunachal because it has never had any border dispute with Bhutan in the eastern region, there was a border dispute with China in central and western Bhutan. IS and the two countries have met 24 times since 1984 on this issue, but never before had China claimed the said sanctuary. China’s leadership and a part of the media have been blaming India for this because China does not have diplomatic relations with Bhutan.
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