It asserts that the only dispute was over the status of Arunachal Pradesh
A month after India and China held the fifteenth round of border talks, a commentary in a Chinese newspaper has questioned India's claims on Kashmir and asserted that the only dispute was over the status of Arunachal Pradesh.
An article in the Communist Party-run Jiefang Daily, or Liberation Daily newspaper said the disputed western section of the border — including the Aksai Chin region which is now under China's control — was not part of the dispute, underscoring how far apart both countries' positions remained even after 15 rounds of negotiations.
The commentary said: “The Indian side believes that the border dispute between China and India covers not only the eastern region of 90,000 sq km but also the western region of 30,000 sq km and the western region is India's too. This wrong argument, which totally disregards the history, still has supporters in India.”
The article, written by an India scholar in the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, Wu Yongnian, was the first Chinese reaction to last month's border talks, and it underscored a hardening in China's position over the western section over recent years, analysts and officials said.
In New Delhi last month, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo, the two Special Representatives, discussed a framework for the settlement of disputes in all three sectors — western, middle and eastern. This was in keeping with the 2005 agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles, which marked the ending of the first of three stages of negotiations.
According to Article III of the agreement, the boundary settlement would be “final, covering all sectors of the India-China boundary.”
While this continues to remain the official position, both sides have repeatedly stressed their claims on the territories under their effective control — Arunachal Pradesh in the east and Aksai Chin in the west — ruling out any concessions, resulting in a stalemate.
There were two different disputes in the western sector — Aksai Chin and the territory from a 1963 Chinese-Pakistani agreement, said M. Taylor Fravel, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has written extensively on the border dispute.
Under the 1963 Sino-Pakistan treaty, which, he said, “contrary to the conventional wisdom in India” favoured Pakistan, China kept around 5,300 sq km of land that Pakistan claimed, but transferred to Pakistan 1,942 sq km of land in the Oprang Valley and dropped claims to an additional 1,554 sq km of land.
“So, China acknowledges a dispute with India in the Western sector of Aksai Chin, but does not acknowledge a dispute with India over its border with Pakistan adjacent to Kashmir. The Jiefang Daily report is not specific enough on this point,” he noted.
Multi-party system
The article said “the main barrier” to settling the boundary dispute came from India and its insistence “that the border line between China and India should be based on the McMahon Line left by British colonists.” It also pointed to India's multi-party political system — where different parties “have different understandings on the China-India border issue” — and India's insistence that China should make a concession rather than have “mutual accommodation” as other sticking points.
It called for both governments to “take a broader perspective, to enhance mutual trust and eliminate the problems” and “to creatively draw a beautiful blueprint for the final settlement of the China-Indian conflicts and problems.” It did not, however, spell out what China would view as an acceptable settlement.
Keywords: India-China ties
India need to be onguard all the time. China covets more and more land. Even Tibet has been usurped by them. They are becoming more and more militarily aggressive. India need to warn China against any border incursions.
One has always got the feeling that China is a worse neighbour than Pakistan. The latter, at least, is more predictable, and in its case, on several occasions, diplomatic efforts have led to goodwill between us and their people. That is hardly the case with China. Though the disputes have always been over the border, as is the case with Pakistan, despite diplomacy and discussions, our relationship with China has been chillier, perhaps largely due to their unpredictability and at times, belligerent attitude, which, as a matter of fact, seems to be becoming recurrent. Perhaps, trade relations and both India and China's positive economic upheaval have caused a thaw in the relationship. However, India must constantly keep China within the radar, as far as defence capability is concerned. Though diplomacy must be given priority, it must be supported internally with caution. Because, it is China we are dealing with. We must guard our fences.
India cannot afford to lose even a cm of her land to china because of the fact that people of india are residing in every inch of the land. on the other hand china would lose nothing if they accept the McMohan line. this fact should be the guiding principle for negotiation, if any. all the more important thing is that all the political parties of India should come before leaving behind their mere political goals and voice cooperatively on the issue so as to send a clear message to china of our united stand on the border issue.
There is but one solution to the border dispute between India and China and that is to convert the Line of Actual Control into a formal boundary. This fact was appreciated by three of our Prime Ministers but none dared to activate it due to vote bank pressures. Aksai Chin was the original dispute item in this context created by Nehru, that ultimately led to the 1962 border war. China would be willing to disengage from Bara Hoti and Sumdurong Chu in the central and eastern sectors respectively as a quid pro quo if the LAC conversion was done. Meaningless meetings such as the one mentioned will ever remain only that - meaningless.
IT IS HIGH TIME THAT OUR political parties sink their differences, the politicians forget their personal animocities and come closer and work in tandem in the matters concerning with the Nations integrity, soverignity and issues concerning the border-disputes, defence, and the like.
China is closely watching our day-to-day politics and tactfully moving the coins.There is no real unity amids us,day-in and day-out we are facing with corruptions and scams, our political system as of now is not conducive to the present day scenario.Enormous if not a radical change should be made in our constitution., even a re-writing the same shall be welcome.Will there be any democracy or country which shall be pampering a cold blooded infiltrator-terrorist-KASAB AND encouraging pettitions from him under falsehoods.If this is what is democracy-let us not have this at all. Let us stand united and safeguard the Soverignity of our country and practice and follow real democracy .Jaihind.
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