The Sino-Indian Boundary issue continues.....

3. The Chinese ‘Claim Line’: The Chinese ‘Claim Line’ is the line which the Peoples' Republic of China (PRC) shows as the international boundary between Chinese Tibet and India on all maps published by itself. In the eastern sector, this line runs close to the foothills of the Himalayas where they touch the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam, thus showing nearly all of Arunachal Pradesh as part of China. The Chinese contention is that all this area is part of Tibet, and is now under illegal occupation by India since April 1938. (That event occurred in British times, when a Capt.

Lightfoot of the Indian Army was sent to Tawang, and the Tibetan administration was expelled from Dirang; independent India’s administration actually began on 12th February 1951 when Maj. R. Khating established himself in Tawang itself and took over the administration of the Tawang tract) In the western sector, in Ladakh, it is the line up to which Chinese troops advanced, and which they were holding at the end of the 1962 border war. (It is probably useful to remember that the international border in the disputed areas printed on Indian maps is regarded by China as an Indian ‘Claim Line’, or a ‘Line of Illegal Occupation’).

4. The ‘Customary Line’: A ‘Customary Line’ is also referred to by the Chinese Government, by which they mean the claimed administrative boundary of Tibet in the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh area prior to 1914, as well as for the western sector. In effect, it is virtually identical to their ‘Claim Line’, but the words are used when justifying their depiction of their claim. Its main basis in the Central Sector lies in the ethno-cultural divide between the high-altitude

Tibetan-speaking villages of Buddhist

faith lying on the southern side of various high Himalayan passes leading to the trans-Himalayan Tibet plateau region.

These are presently small disputed segments to which even the Chinese have some authentic records showing Tibetanallegiances of such villages. If these are negotiated, a settlement can certainly be reached.

To be continued...