The Sino-Indian Boundary Issue continues ..

Arriving at an Agreed Boundary: The lack of an agreed boundary between the two countries is the real issue at the diplomatic level.

Each country’s perceptions differ as to what and where the common boundary should be. Inevitably, in effect the ‘boundary issue’ is essentially a ‘territory issue’, i.e., an issue of which territory belongs to whom, and so a sovereignty issue. China’s new ‘Land Boundary Law’, 2021, should be viewed in this context. Consequently, as per India, China is in illegal occupation of Indian territory in Aksai Chin in the western sector, whereas China believes India is in illegal occupation of Chinese territory in the eastern sector, which is the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh.

India believes it is the legal successor to treaties arrived at by the British Government of India: China neither agrees with this position nor with the ‘treaties’ which it says were concluded with a Government of Tibet which as per China had no authority to negotiate such treaties. This position therefore makes the ‘McMahon Line’ an illegal boundary drawn by the British, to which China does not agree. There are numerous other ‘lines’, some drawn by the British, other used by the Chinese in their diplomatic correspondence, which have confused the issue in the minds of the average Indian citizen.

These disagreements led to the border war of 1962. A final agreement will require political will on the part of both governments, and an actual urgent-enough desire to settle the issue at the earliest.

Politically, this could mean the acceptance on both sides of some sort of ‘Package Deal’ involving trade-offs, merely cartographic or even actual, that would satisfy both sides and the local inhabitants, without involving any transfers of local populations. But tied up with these practical issues
is the fact that any ‘legality’ of Arunachal Pradesh being part of China derives from (a) Tibet itself being part of China, and (b) Tibet having actually had administrative control over all the area of Arunachal Pradesh, other than in the ‘Tawang Tract’ of the Kameng area in western Aruanchal.

To be continued..