Ladakh Flash Point
- Thread starter Mt1701d
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I don't think so. There are other countries in the region & i don't think we are exactly comfortable with some stupid ***k playing nuclear nuclear game around us just because they have "got a dream" to catch up with big boys.
As part of the 1km move back for both sides, PLA has left finger 4 which is the edge of Chinese claims and 4 whole fingers (peninsulas) inside India's claims which end at finger 8. So the agreements seems to be finger 1 and 3 to India, finger 3 to 5 a buffer, and fingers 5 to 8 for China. Indian originally claimed all fingers 1 to 8. This is just Pangong. Galwan follows a similar 2km wide buffer where Chinese have been given Indian claimed lands... or rather India's given up on their foolishly greedy claims and finally agreed to the 1959 Chinese claimed borderlines.
Aranuchal Pradesh I think is where China really wants to settle. It's so far from India and right next to Sichuan province. The Ladakh conflict zones of Galwan valley, Depsang, and Pangong are really so out of the way for China and unimportant. These places are however within 400km of New Delhi. That's about 4 hours drive on a highway! Arunachal Pradesh should really have been the place to make moves and settle borders if China was really wanting to get something useful out of this. Which begs the question why the Ladakh received more action. Well India has been building up towards Chinese claim lines here which explains the backlash. Over at AP, the Indians haven't been building up so that region remains peaceful despite it being right next to Sichuan province. I guess PLA doesn't consider Indian military presence of at AP a threat at all since it's so far past the chicken's neck and so far from the rest of India. It's surrounded by Myanmar and Bhutan and basically in the Bengali side of India.
Ladakh puts further pressure on New Delhi and is so close to high population pockets not to mention sensitive Kashmir. It's understandable why the Indians put more emphasis on Ladakh and claimed more land there.
For the same reason why so many powers are pushing their claims over the Arctic, even though it's still covered with ice. It's the future 'opening' of it that they are fighting over. The thing to remember is that unlike the Arctic which is a new theater, this sector has been highly contested for a long time.
This section of the board was always a key theater in the 'great game' between the British, Soviets and Chinese. The British also wanted to penetrate the roadblocks here when they ruled India. So did the Soviets. Think about why the Soviets created the Xinjiang resistance against the CCP? Earlier, the Soviets even went to war with Chiang Kai-shek here in 1934. Why did the Soviets bleed themselves to death trying to hold on to Afghanistan? For the same reason why the US is so hesitant to get out of Afghanistan today. It's not "pride." Just the fact that Zhouenlai offered to give away China's Eastern claim, in return for Ladakh, should signal the strategic importance of this sector. All these moves are part of the 'Great Game' of Central Asia.
Here's a basic article covering some aspects of this 'Great Game' but many books have been written about it:
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Maybe the Chinese can re-open up the dispute at Doklam. Directing pressure there would really hurt the Indians because it is so close to the Siliguri Corridor. The Chinese already know how sensitive the area is to the Indians back in 2017 so if they really wanted to apply maximum pressure, Doklam would be the place to do so.
Aksai Chin is the most valued piece for China among all the disputed territories between India and China, because it connects Xinjiang and Tibet, with NH219 passing through it. That is why Chinese premiere Zhou Enlai originally offered the deal of trading the eastern sector of the disputed territory (South Tibet/Aranuchal Pradesh) for Aksai Chin in the western sector. India refused the deal. China had since revised the deal to also include Tawang, the birthplace of 6th Dalai Lama Tsangyang, in the eastern sector along with Aksai Chin for China.
The fact that Aksai Chin happens to be close to CPEC is an added factor for China holding firm stand there.
So which territory that was controlled by India as of 2019 was lost? You are correct in the sense that India des claim Aksai Chin to be Indian territory, so I suppose you have a point there, but during the whole recent border skirmish, China only moved past the Chinese claim line by at most 1km(a very liberal estimate) even though China claimed the entire Galwan valley, effectively shifting the CCL by 4-5 km. So what territory did India lose? And obviously, India will move back to its pre- April positions once it is confident in Chinese intentions. Already India has secured the DBO road overlooking Karakoram, and finished completion of feeder roads and bridges over the Galwan and Shyok, so there is no benefit for India to stay in a narrow valley with rising water levels. Of course, India is still waiting to verify Chinese intentions, which is why it still maintains a thinned out but sizeable prescence within 1km of the CCL/LAC mutually accepted by both sides. So what exactly has India lost?
BTW, I am happy the situation was resolved peacefully without India losing any land. Interestingly it seems to be Pakistanis parroting ridiculous claims of China occupying 60 km of Ladakh, which contradicts China's own claims.
Tell you what. Show me the extent of Indian land lost to China that you claim and back it up with evidence, and I will stop posting.
Regards.
So where is the LAC, according to you? google maps shows the LAC only a few dozen meters behind pp14 at the Galwan bend. At most China may have crossed it by a few hundred meters. And the agreement clearly says both sides will eventually move two km from the lac which was agreed upon in 1993. BTW China just changed its claim to include the entirety of the Galwan valley up until the Galwan meets the Shyok, which I 4-5 km from the previously agreed LAC, and the previous ccl.
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