How China is grabbing Arunachal Pradesh’s land? – Burning Issues – Free PDF

McMohan Line

McMahon Line, is the demarcation line between Tibet and the Northeast region of India proposed by British colonial administrator Sir Henry McMahon at the 1914 Shimla Convention.

What Gao Says?

• For Arunachal Pradesh, Chinese incursions are not new. Every year, the Chinese enter the Indian territory. They build structures and write on rocks; just to send a message that the land belongs to them.
• Gao, who has been very vocal about raising issues regarding Chinese intrusions and border demarcation, said, “we should only recognise the McMahon Line.”

India can’t even claim certain areas

•  “In a conversation with Jaswant Singh, former Defence/Finance minister, who was serving as an Army captain in Arunachal Pradesh during 1964-66, he told me that Indian Army had eight camps beyond Ashafila and each camp had at least 5 to 8 km distance.
• But now, we cannot even claim Ashafila,” said the MP.

Sumdorong Chu Valley

• “Sumdorong Chu Valley in Tawang district also has been captured by the Chinese PLA in 1986, when Krishnaswamy Sundarji was the chief of Indian Army,” he said.
• Sumdorong Chu Valley (previously in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh) is bounded by Bhutan in the west and the Thag La ridge to the north.

India lodged complaint but Chinese denied

• On 26 June 1986, the Government of India lodged a formal protest with Beijing against intrusions in this region by Chinese troops, that had occurred on 16 June.
• The official Indian stance was that the Chinese troops had intruded south of the Mc Mohan Line (ML) however, Chinese officials denied any such intrusions and maintained that its troops were in a location north of the ML.

• The MP also claimed that “the Fish Tail-1 and Fish Tail-2, which is in Indian territory is not being shown in the map. If we go by the map, those areas are just left out as if it belongs to China.“
•  “We already have military camps in those areas,” he said.
•  Fish Tail-1 and Fish Tail-2 are in the easternmost corners of Arunachal Pradesh and road infrastructure is extremely poor. Both the areas are near Mc Mohan Line and the Fish Tail-1 is mostly a glaciated region.

Fish Tail-1 and Fish Tail-2

• For the first time, India and China had a coordinating patrolling of Fish-Tail-2 along the LAC last year in an attempt to build confidence and maintain peace along the border.
• Reports of patrols from both sides crossing the borders (as per their claims), marking their presence before returning and also being face to face, challenging the other have already surfaced many a time.

Recent Intrusion in Arunachal

• Although Indian Army denied BJP MP Tapir Gao’s claim that China was intruding into the Chaglagam and Bishing area of Arunachal Pradesh.
•  Satellite images show that Chinese intruded in the northern region at Bishing about 175 km from Chaglagam.
•  They have also built a road approximately 1 kilometre deep into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control.

• This road enters from the east where the border runs north-south, and runs parallel to the east-west orientation of the border.
•  The road, running from east to west, is 942 meters deep into the Indian territory and runs parallel to the border at an almost consistent depth of 300 to 400 meters.

Road and Military Bases

•  What is significant about this road is that it is backed by significant infrastructure within China from its starting point on the Brahmaputra and virtually no infrastructure of note on the Indian side.
• The size of the buildings seems to indicate a military administrative outpost, built for scaled up operations, if and when desired.

Border Demarcation

• Proper border demarcation is the only solution for intrusions and face-offs, said the MP.

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