2017 China–India border standoff

The 2017 China India border standoff refers to the military border standoff between the Indian armed forces and the People's Liberation Army of China over construction of a road in Doklam (also known as Donglang). The standoff started on June 18, 2017, when around 270 Indian troops, with weapons and two bulldozers crossed the border between India and China and stopped China's PLA from constructing a road in Doklam. On August 9, 2017, china claims that only 53 Indian troops and one bulldozer still remain in Doklam. On the other hand India has declined chines claim and said there are still 300 to 350 Indian troops at doklam.

Background

Unlike China, India does not have a claim in Donglang region.

The border between China and Bhutan and the disputed area

Donglang is located in the Xigaze area of Tibet, bordering the state of Sikkim.

In 1949, Bhutan signed a treaty with Bhutan gives allowance to India to guide its diplomatic and defense affairs. In 2007, a new treaty between the two countries invalided the allowance. India has been seeking control of Bhutan's diplomacy and defense.

On August 8, 2017, according to India Express, a major news agency of India, Bhutan acknowledges that Docklam belongs to China. Although, according to India Express, the origin of the news is released by a top Chinese diplomat, Wang Wenli. According to Wang, Bhutan has conveyed to Beijing through diplomatic channels that the area of the standoff is not its territory.

Negotiation

On 18 June, Indian troops stopped the construction of a road in disputed territory. China criticized that India has no legal grounds and that the dispute was recently created by India to undermine the long lasting peace and tranquility in this segment, further claiming that the agreed upon border here was the foundation for the tranquility of this border segment in the backdrop of other Sino-India border segments fraught with unclear demarcations. In a 1949 treaty, Bhutan agreed to let India guide its foreign policy and defense affairs. In 2007, the treaty was superseded by a new friendship treaty that replaced the provision that made it mandatory for Bhutan to take India's guidance on foreign policy, providing broader sovereignty to Bhutan and not requiring it to obtain India's permission over arms imports. Article 2 of the 2007 Friendship Treaty signed by India and Bhutan in 2007 states:

In keeping with the abiding ties of close friendship and cooperation between Bhutan and India, the Government of the Kingdom of Bhutan and the Government of the Republic of India shall cooperate closely with each other on issues relating to their national interests.

Former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador of India to China, Nirupama Rao said:

Bhutan and India enjoy the closest relationship of mutual trust and confidence and enduring friendship. There is absolutely no controversy about military-to-military cooperation and understanding between our two countries. India holds Bhutanese sovereignty as sacred and inviolable.

.......

Ambassador of Bhutan to India Vetsop Namgyel stated,

Doklam is a disputed territory and Bhutan has a written agreement with China that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, peace and tranquillity should be maintained in the area.

India charges that China has violated this 'peace agreement' by trying to construct roads in Doklam. India also criticized China for "crossing the border" and attempting to construct a road (allegedly done "illegally"), while China criticized India for entering its territory.

On 29 June 2017, Bhutan protested to China against the construction of a road in the disputed territory. On the same day, the Bhutanese border was put on high alert and border security was tightened as a result of the growing tensions. China released a map depicting Doklam as part of China. According to China's claim, via the map, that territory south to Gipmochi belonged to China and claimed it was supported by the 1890 Britain–China treaty Convention of Calcutta.

On 3 July 2017, China told India that former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru accepted the 1890 Britain–China treaty.

On 5 July 2017, the Chinese government said that it had for the past 24 months a basic consensus with Bhutan that Doklam belongs to China, and there was no dispute between the two countries. Contrary to Chinese claim, Nehru’s 26 September 1959 letter to Zhou, cited by China, was a point-by-point refutation of the claims made by the latter on 8 September 1959. Nehru made is amply clear in his refutal that the 1890 treaty defined only the northern part of the Sikkim-Tibet border and not the tri-junction area. Nehru claimed that "rectification of errors in Chinese maps regarding the boundary of Bhutan with Tibet is, therefore, a matter which has to be discussed along with the boundary of India with the Tibet region of China in the same sector."

The Chinese government quoted Nehru's statement out of context, as Nehru in his reply had made it clear boundaries of Sikkim and Bhutan did not fall within the scope of the discussion:

This Convention of 1890 also defined the boundary between Sikkim and Tibet; and the boundary was later, in 1895, demarcated. There is thus no dispute regarding the boundary of Sikkim with the Tibet region.

On this clarification, Chinese official spokesman replied: "The so-called tri-junction, as the name suggests, is a point. It is not a line, much less an area. India misinterprets tri-junction point as an area, from ulterior motives. This time, the trespassing point of Indian army, is on the Sikkim-China border, which is 2000 metres away from the tri-junction point, Mount Gipmochi, by the 1890 Treaty."

On 19 July 2017, China renewed its call for India to withdraw its troops from Doklam. On 2 August 2017, according to information released by the Chinese government, there are still around 40 Indian troops and one bulldozer in Doklam (Donglang) region.

On 24 July 2017, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters that it is very clear who is right and who is wrong in the standoff in Doklam, and that even senior Indian officials have publicly said that Chinese troops have not intruded into Indian territory.

"In other words, India admitted that it has entered Chinese territory. The solution to this issue is simple, which is that they behave themselves and withdraw."

Criticism

Retired Australian-British journalist and scholar Neville Maxwell, who authored the book India's China War which is considered an authoritative analysis of the 1962 Sino-Indian War, criticized that:

"Every generation of literate Indians is inculcated with that false sense of national oppression by the cartographic image showing broad areas of Indian territory 'occupied' by China, with reminders that Beijing’s maps reveal an intention to seize even more... Time, weather and probably local human mischief will have obliterated the border markers [from 1890] but the careful verbal description in the Treaty prevails to prove that the local Indian commander, with or without higher orders, has blatantly moved forces into what is now Chinese territory. Beijing, sorely chafed already by India’s recent repeated provocations, appears to have decided that this is too much, and has itself adopted the absolutist Nehruvian position of 'no discussion without withdrawal'."

"The Indian attempt to depict this confrontation as tripartite should be disregarded. Bhutan is not an independent actor, is rather an Indian glove-puppet. A brigade group of the Indian Army, permanently stationed in Bhutan and now reinforced, is an ever-present reminder to Bhutan’s ruling group of what happened to Sikkim when its ruler aspired to independence – speedy annexation."

See also

• Doklam
• China–India relations
• Bhutan–China relations
• Sino-Indian War
• Chola incident
• Siliguri Corridor

External links

• Neville Maxwell, THIS IS INDIA’S CHINA WAR, ROUND TWO, Jul 14, 2017