JOIN USChina's settlements, renaming aimed to gain edge in border talks
China's moves to build villages along its disputed boundary with India and to rename places in Arunachal Pradesh in its own languages are all linked to its ploy to take advantage of a bilateral agreement inked in 2005 and to sway the boundary negotiation in its favour.
The Chinese government is also set to bring into force a new land boundary law on Saturday. The law, which was adopted on October 23, emphasises the role of the civilian population in protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.
India has dismissed Beijing’s latest move to assign new names to eight residential places, four mountains, two rivers and a mountain pass in Arunachal Pradesh, but it has also been increasingly worried over China's intent to take advantage of the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the Boundary Question, which India and China had signed in 2005.
The Article VII of the 2005 India-China agreement says that the two sides shall safeguard interests of settled populations in the border areas while clinching a deal to resolve the boundary row.
The India-China boundary negotiation led by the Special Representatives of the two governments remained stalled since the two sides got engaged in a military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020. But India suspects that China is trying to strengthen its territorial claims in anticipation of resumption of negotiation in future – not only by building villages in the territories of India and Bhutan, but also by renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh.
China is clearly preparing to counter India's territorial claims by citing the border villages as well as the habitats named in Mandarin Chinese in Arunachal Pradesh, a source aware of the course of the boundary negotiations told DH.
China's new Land Border Law's emphasis on development of villages and towns in the border areas and role of civilians in protecting sovereignty and territorial integrity indicates that it would expand settlements all along its disputed boundaries with India and Bhutan.
“Zangnan (the southern part of China’s Tibet) is located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has been China’s territory since ancient times. China’s ethnic minorities such as the Moinba and Tibetan ethnic groups have lived and worked in this area for a long time, and many place names have been passed down," Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government, said in Beijing.
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