Hamlet in China’s territory, not in Arunachal, says Govt
Days after a Pentagon report noted that China has built a village along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian security establishment said here on Tuesday the hamlet is in territory controlled by China.
It was also clarified that the village with more than 100 dwelling units was built in the area under the Chinese control since around 1959 itself. The Chinese forces overran an Assam Rifles post then and maintained an Army post since then, sources said here.
This assertion came after the annual report by the US Department on Military and Security Development released on Thursday last week said China has built a village in a disputed area in the Arunachal Pradesh sector.
“The village along the disputed border in the upper Subansiri district is in the territory controlled by China. They have, for years, maintained an Army post in the region and the various constructions undertaken by the Chinese have not happened in a short time,” sources said.
They said the village was built in an area that was occupied by it around six decades back. “The village has been built by China in an area that was occupied by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after overrunning an Assam Rifles post in 1959, in an operation known as Longju incident along the frontier in Arunachal Pradesh.”
The annual United States Department of Defence report on military developments involving China underlined the US perception of the tension along the LAC and also referred to the creation of a Chinese village in Arunachal Pradesh. The report was submitted to the US Congress.
In a chapter on the China-India border standoff, the US Department of Defence said, “Sometime in 2020, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between the PRC’s Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh State in the eastern sector of the LAC.” “These and other infrastructure development efforts along the India-China have been a source of consternation in the Indian Government and the media.”
The village in question is located on the banks of the River Tsari Chu, and lies in the Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, an area which has seen clashes between India and Chinese soldiers even before the 1962 war.
While China has maintained a small military outpost in the area for more than a decade, the situation changed drastically in 2020, when it constructed a full-fledged village and stepped-up road construction activity inside Indian territory in the region.
The US Department of Defence report said, “Despite the ongoing diplomatic and military dialogues to reduce border tensions, the PRC has continued taking incremental and tactical actions to press its claims at the LAC.”
Last month, Eastern Army Command Chief Lieutenant General Manoj Pande told reporters visiting Arunachal Pradesh that China continues to construct “dual-use” border villages which can also be used to position soldiers.
China’s policy of building up habitations along the LAC in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh is a part of a multi-billion dollar plan to ramp up infrastructure in the Tibet region. This includes the development of massive road and rail infrastructure to border towns and a plan to reportedly build more than 600 fully developed villages in the region.