The nearly 4,057- km Line of Actual Control (LAC) divides India and China.
“Ever since the U.S. nuclear deal in 2005, relations with China have been going through a turbulent time,” said Brahma Chellaney at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. “Nothing has changed in recent months to suggest that turbulence is easing or subsiding. What we are seeing actually is that Chinese state media is taking an increasingly hard line.”
The McMahon Line was part of the 1914 Simla Convention between British India and Tibet, an agreement rejected by China. The 1962 Sino-Indian War was fought in this territory. An agreement to resolve the dispute was concluded in 1996, including "confidence-building measures" and a mutually agreed Line of Actual Control. In 2006, the Chinese ambassador to India stated that all of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory. This was followed up with a military build up, and numerous incursions into Sikkim, some penetrating by more than a kilometer. In 2009, India announced it would deploy additional military forces along the border.
Arunachal
At the heart of the Sino-Indian boundary dispute is the issue of Arunachal Pradesh (90,000 sq km), which China refers to as "Southern Tibet". Beijing has reportedly demanded that if not the whole state, at least the Tawang tract be transferred to China. They are apparently insistent that unless India gives in to their demand, no boundary settlement is possible. India, too, is firm in its stance that there can be no compromise either on Arunachal Pradesh or Tawang, which is an area with a settled population.
China took every opportunity to reassert its claim to Arunachal, which it refers to as Southern Tibet. Sensing that there was no longer any hope of a deal, India hardened its position, too.
The extent of the deterioration in relations was underlined this week when a team of Indian foreign policy experts and former senior officials warned that India needed to be better prepared in case China decided to assert its territorial claims by force.
“There is the possibility that China might resort to territorial grabs,” they wrote in a major review of Indian foreign policy, saying China probably would aim to occupy “bite-sized” chunks of land along the ill-defined frontier. “We cannot also entirely dismiss the possibility of a major military offensive in Arunachal Pradesh or Ladakh [Kashmir].”
Aksai Chin
Aksai Chin is one of the two main disputed border areas between India and China. The dispute stems from India's allegation that China illegally occupied a 38,000 sq km swathe of land in Jammu and Kashmir (Aksai Chin), following the 1962 war between the two countries. While the largely uninhabited area is controlled by the Chinese, India claims Aksai Chin as its own territory, asserting that it is the eastern-most part of Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, Pakistan ceded 5,180 sq km of J&K territory to China in 1963.
W. H. Johnson, a civil servant with the Survey of India proposed the "Johnson Line" in 1865, which put Aksai Chin in Kashmir. This was the time of the Dungan revolt, when China did not control Xinjiang, so this line was never presented to the Chinese. Johnson presented this line to the Maharaja of Kashmir, who then claimed the 18,000 square kilometres contained within, and by some accounts territory further north as far as the Sanju Pass in the Kun Lun Mountains.
Upon independence in 1947, the government of India used the Johnson Line as the basis for its official boundary in the west, which included the Aksai Chin. From the Karakoram Pass (which is not under dispute), the Indian claim line extends northeast of the Karakoram Mountains through the salt flats of the Aksai Chin, to set a boundary at the Kunlun Mountains, and incorporating part of the Karakash River and Yarkand River watersheds. From there, it runs east along the Kunlun Mountains, before turning southwest through the Aksai Chin salt flats, through the Karakoram Mountains, and then to Panggong Lake.
On July 1, 1954 Prime Minister Nehru wrote a memo directing that the maps of India be revised to show definite boundaries on all frontiers. Up to this point, the boundary in the Aksai Chin sector, based on the Johnson Line, had been described as "undemarcated.
At the heart of the tension lies a seemingly intractable border dispute that erupted into a brief war in 1962.
China claims the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, a thickly forested, mountainous region that shares cultural links with Tibet. India contests China’s occupation of a barren plateau in Kashmir, far to the west.
India has been reluctant to part with any portion of the disputed territory since the 1950s. It rejected a swap offer made by China's former Prime Minister Zhou Enlai in 1960, asking India to recognise China's control of Aksai Chin in the west as a quid pro quo for China's recognition of the McMahon line.
After rejecting that offer, India initiated a "forward policy" to control the disputed territories in the Himalayas.
Many specialists like Neville Maxwell, author of India's China War blame this policy for the 1962 war between the two countries, in which the India army was routed and the Chinese almost reached the plains of Assam before withdrawing to their present positions on the Tibet-Arunachal border.
Former army chief and Arunachal governor General (retd) J. J. Singh has said India should do away with its non-negotiable stand on the border dispute with China.
Calling for normalisation of relations between India and China, the General said: "The world has changed and we are a much more confident nation now. It is important to realise that we need a speedy resolution to the boundary dispute".
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