Amid increased incursions along the line of Actual Control, the Chinese intelligence agencies have filtered into India an estimated 300 men in the past year disguised as Tibetans and monks.
The spies have mostly been sent from the Indo-Nepal border and agencies here suspect they could be studying faultlines of the Himalayan belt region. India considers the Himalayan range as a security wall and the Chinese are taking a number of measures to undo the geographical advantage. China is opening an embassy in Bhutan and has already been collaborating with the Nepalese agencies in its bid to contain Indian influence.
The agents are suspected to be pursuing their agenda in ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Darjeeling. China aims to suppress any possible Tibetan movement.
Having already developed infrastructure on its side, China now plans to gain a foothold here to create disturbances if India allies with the European Union and the US to rake up the Tibet issue in the future, top officials in the security establishment said.
As a measure to check the activities of the Chinese agencies along Info-Nepal border, the Centre last week approved over `4,000 crore for creation of border outposts and other infrastructure of the Sasashtra Seema Bal that guards the frontier with Nepal and Bhutan.
The Chinese agencies are also believed to be supplying arms to the Naxal outfits through the Nepalese Maoists and Indian insurgent groups operating out of Burma.
According to intelligence reports, the Chinese agencies have also been operating a number of Mandarin learning centres along the Indo-Nepal Terai belt with an ostensible agenda of imparting language training to the Nepalese youth.
But the agencies here suspect that they could use the hassle-free border arrangement with Nepal to send their men to gather intelligence.
These learning centres are inconspicuous with about three to four dozen staff. These centres covertly aim to contain Indian influence in the region and monitor the activities of Tibetan refugees along the Indo-Nepal border.
Nepalcitizens are free to cross over to India without any travel document like passport and the arrangement suits the Chinese as their agencies strive to create a major intelligence gathering hub in the Terai belt. Besides this, as per sources they also lend support to the Indian Maoists.
The agencies have in the past arrested a number of suspicious Chinese nationals from Sunauli in Maharajganj and Bahraich of Uttar Pradesh.
Three Chinese nationals were also detained from the leh area in Jammu and Kashmir as late as June this year. The detained Chinese citizens were in their early twenties and carrying maps, arms and some currency. Following suspicion over their movement, an Army patrol had picked them up.