Sept. 7 – The recent and ongoing spat between China and India over disputed territories in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh has flared up further with India claiming that China violated Indian airspace and illegally entered the region sparking strong denials from the Chinese side.
The reported incursions occurred at a time when China has invited Indian generals to visit several key Chinese cities and when India has just appointed a new ambassador to China, Mr. S. Jaishankar.
Chinese troops apparently entered nearly 1.5 kilometers into Indian territory near Mount Gya, recognized as the international border by both India and China, according to official sources quoted by the Times of India. The Chinese soldiers painted “China” in Chinese characters with red spray paint all over the boulders and rocks. The 22,420-foot Mount Gya is located at the tri-junction of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, and Tibet. Its boundary was marked during the British era, but is regarded as the international border by the two countries.
The Chinese Foreign Minister rebuffed the claims, stating that “reports of incursions are groundless. Incursions into India never happened.” Times Now, further quoted the ministry as saying that the Chinese will “seek a friendly solution to the issue through negotiations.”
If true, the Chinese incursions may be in retaliation for India’s repeated efforts to secure ADB funding for water supplies to the disputed Arunachal Pradesh region and act as a military warning that China’s strength is greater than India’s should the nation try and push its claims further. However, they may also be part of the ongoing tit-for-tat game played out along the line of control that separates the two countries, as both sides have over the years indulged in acts that amount to little more than petty theft of the occasional small fuel dump and the spraying of graffiti claiming the land to belong to one or the other. However, the incidents do present the new Indian ambassador to China with an immediate territorial headache.
Video of alleged Chinese troops entering Ladakh
China’s denial of the incursion
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