China has built a 100-home village in disputed Indian territory that Beijing claims is theirs amid rising tensions between the two countries.
Satellite images dated 1 November 2020 show a development of 101 homes in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh at a location 2.8 miles inside Indian territory.
Images from just over a year ago show the area without any construction taking place, meaning the site was developed within the past 12 months.
The village is located on the banks of the River Tsari Chu in the Upper Subansiri district, an area claimed by both Delhi and Beijing, which has been the site of armed conflict in previous years.
The images were released today, days after Chinese and Indian tanks faced off hundreds of yards from each other at a disputed Himalayan border post.
A locator map shows the Chinese village, 2.8 miles inside Indian territory
A satellite image shows the newly built Chinese village at a location 2.8 miles inside Indian territory in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh
Similar images from August 2019 do not show any construction activity, meaning the village was built within the last year
On Friday, an image shared on Chinese social media site Weibo showed armoured vehicles lined up against each other beside encampments along the 2,000-mile border where last year grisly hand-to-hand combat left 20 Indian soldiers dead.
Regarding the new village in Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian Foreign Ministry said: ‘We have seen recent reports on China undertaking construction work along the border areas with India. China has undertaken such infrastructure construction activity in the past several years.’
‘Our Government too has stepped up border infrastructure including the construction of roads, bridges etc, which has provided much needed connectivity to the local population along the border.’
In October, China claimed it was India who was developing infrastructure along the border, and accused them of stepping up their military deployments.
According to NDTV, there are no signs of Indian settlements near the new Chinese village.
The village has been built close to what experts believe is a Chinese forward military post. The revelation comes days after Indian and Chinese tanks faced off elsewhere on the Himalayan border
In the same month the satellite images were taken, an Indian MP from the region, Tapir Gao, warned parliament of Chinese incursions in his state.
‘Construction is still going on. China has entered more than 60-70 kms (37-43 miles) inside the upper Subansiri district if you follow the path along the river. They are constructing a road along the river known locally as the Lensi as it flows in the direction of the Subansiri river,’ he said.
Today, Gao said Beijing has also begun the construction of a new double-lane road, according to NDTV.
The Foreign Ministry did not disclose whether the new construction had been raised with Beijing.
NDTV reported the village has been built close to a structure believed by military analysts to be a Chinese military post.
The military post has also been extensively built up, according to experts. Both China and India have accused each other of stepping up building projects along the border
New Delhi observes the McMahon Line, a demarcation between Tibet and India’s northeast, which it believes marks the boundary between India and China. Beijing disputes this line.
Following the 1962 Sino-Indian war, the foes agreed to respect the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to separate Indian and Chinese territory.
Claude Arpi, an expert in India-China relations, told NDTV that the village is ‘well south of the McMahon Line’.
He said the village’s construction ‘is an extraordinarily serious issue as it has many other implications elsewhere on the boundary.’
Both countries have previously agreed to ‘safeguard due interests of their settled populations in the border areas’ and to ‘work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas’.
In 1959, after a military incident near the Tsari Chu river, Delhi complained to Beijing about soldiers firing without warning on an Indian forward post.
‘Its [China’s] encroachment on an area that clearly falls within India underscores the stealth and speed with which it is redrawing facts on the ground, with little regard for the geopolitical fallout,’ said strategic affairs expert Dr Brahma Chellaney.
Since June’s clash, the first deadly fighting in 45 years, India and China have heavily fortified their positions on either side of India’s Ladakh region and deployed thousands of troops.
The photograph was first shared on Chinese social media site Weibo by a ‘military blogger’ and the story has since been picked up by pro-Beijing news sites which boast of the prowess of their Type-15 tanks
Since June’s clash, the first deadly fighting in 45 years, India and China have heavily fortified their positions on either side of India’s Ladakh region
On Monday, the Times of India reported that the Chinese had moved around 10,000 troops held in reserve up to LAC.
There are up to 35 Chinese tanks close to outposts captured by the Indian army in late August. It is not clear how many tanks the Indians have in reply.
Last year’s Galwan Valley battle led to boycotts of Chinese goods and furious protests on the streets of Indian capital New Delhi.
In November, the two sides began formulating a disengagement plan to withdraw troops and establish no-patrol zones, but the talks appear to have fallen through.
The deaths of the soldiers are still bitterly felt by the Indian troops and they were remembered again on Friday during Army Day 2021 in Delhi.
General Manoj Mukund Naravane lauded the ‘supreme sacrifice’ of the Galwan Valley ‘bravehearts.’
He said that the army ‘took swift action during the India-China LAC standoff’ to protect the border and a ‘befitting response’ was given to the Beijing ‘conspiracy’ to shift the frontier.
‘We are committed to finding the resolution of our disputes through discussions and political efforts but no one should test out patience,’ the general said.
Between April and May last year, the Indians claim that the Chinese deployed nearly 50,000 troops close to the boundary, as well as heavy artillery and the infrastructure to support its men.
Earlier this week, Beijing propaganda mouthpiece China.com published an article which proudly boasted of the superiority of the Chinese Type 15 tanks against India’s T-17 and T-90s.
It said: ‘India has been operating on the western border for many years and has many practices in the use of tanks and armoured vehicles.
‘However, the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) was able to quickly form an advantage in the number of tanks at specific locations, and the level of equipment and technology was immediately superior.’
Last Friday, a Chinese solider was arrested by Indian forces after he allegedly strayed over the border.
‘The PLA soldier is being dealt with as per laid down procedures, and circumstances under which he had crossed the LAC are being investigated,’ a statement from the Indian Army said.
The PLA claimed the soldier went missing in ‘the darkness and complicated terrain’ and insisted India was informed.
‘India should strictly abide by the relevant agreements between the two countries, and promptly transfer the missing person to China, to help with cooling and de-escalating the China-Indian border situation,’ the military newspaper added.
Another Chinese soldier was briefly held by Indian forces in the same region in October.
In June, the Indian army accused the Chinese of using clubs fashioned with barbed wire and nails to beat their troops. The Galwan Valley clash left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead
Prior to June’s deadly skirmish, footage was leaked which purported to show an Indian forces battering a PLA soldier in May
Tensions flared between China and India last June when a clash along the disputed Himalayan border led to the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers.
In the following months, the nuclear-armed neighbours deployed tens of thousands of soldiers across India’s Ladakh region and China’s Tibetan plateau.
India and China inherited their territorial disputes from the period of British colonial rule.
Three years after India’s independence in 1947 and a year after the communists came to power in China, the new government in Beijing began strongly asserting its claims and repudiating earlier treaties it says were signed under duress, but which India says are fixed.
Beijing’s approach has strengthened under Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader in decades who has sworn not to surrender even an inch of territory.
In the 1950s, China started building a strategic road on the uninhabited Aksai Chin Plateau to connect its restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
India objected and claimed Aksai Chin as part of Ladakh, itself belonging to the former principality of Kashmir now divided between India and Pakistan.
Relations were further strained after India allowed Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to establish a self-declared government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala after he fled his homeland in 1959 during an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.
The differences led to a bitter month-long war in 1962. Firefights broke out again in 1967 and 1975, leading to more deaths on both sides.
They’ve since adopted protocols, including an agreement not to use firearms, but those protocols have fractured in this year’s clashes.
Prabhjot Singh, son of Satnam Singh, an Indian soldier who was killed in a border clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh region, reacts next to the coffin of his father during his funeral ceremony in Bhojraj village in Gurdaspur, Punjab India, on June 18, 2020
Indians burn images of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bhopal on June 16 after news of the violence at the border broke
China, in the meantime, began cementing its relations with India’s arch-rival Pakistan and backing it on the issue of Kashmir.
The fiercely contested LAC separates Chinese and Indian held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. It is broken in parts where the Himalayan nations of Nepal and Bhutan border China.
According to India, the de facto border is 2,167 miles long, although China promotes a considerably shorter figure.
As its name suggests, it divides the areas of physical control rather than territorial claims.
In all, China claims some 35,000 square miles of territory in India’s northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh with its mainly Buddhist population.
India says China occupies 15,000 square miles of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau, which India considers part of Ladakh, where the current face-off is happening.