Defence Minister A.K. Antony has told the Parliament that India has conveyed her concerns to China for her activities in PoK. This is perhaps the first time that the Defence Minister has referred to Chinese activities in that area though previously Indian authorities have been speaking of Sino-Indian dispute about the border in North East. In the past, media has been reporting about queer activities of Chinese troops stationed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh region. This included trespassing into Indian side and painting stones or structures red with Chinese emblem and then returning to their position across the LAC. This could be called a hostile act. In the same manner China would circulate maps showing large chunks of Indian territory in Ladakh as its own. In some cases, on protests from Indian side, the Chinese would silently withdraw these maps. These could be called low key hostile activities and if the Government of India took them lightly, that did not create furore either in the Parliament or among the locals.
But Chinese interference in the region has graduated and come up to a level where it has become offending. Only recently the administration in Nyoma sub-division invited the attention of the State Government and the Ministry of External Affairs to grave interference of the Chinese that would deny them the right and facility of maintaining their herds of sheep and goats in a large area with the potential to be converted into green pasture. Ladakh administration has also approached the ITBP authorities to make sure that clandestine intrusion by the Chinese in the undemarcated border with China should be taken note of and stopped forthwith. We are not aware whether the Defence Ministry or the Ministry of External Affairs has taken note of the complaint or not, but the fact is that there is a serious dimension to the activities of China in PoK and about which our Defence Minister has given a statement in the Parliament albeit not a detailed one.
What are the objectionable activities which China is carrying out in PoK has not been spelt out by the Defence Minister in his statement. He may have reasons to make only an understatement. In all probability, India would not want to precipitate any action likely to escalate tension in relations between the two countries. At the root of all this lie two basic things; one is China’s covetousness for redrawing her boundary with India and second is her rivalry with India for leadership of the Asian Continent. From Indian point of view, the root cause of tension in relations between the two countries is illegal occupation by China of a large chunk of territory which belongs to India. Providing details of the places where Indian lands are under Chinese occupation, Antony said, “Indian territory under occupation by China in Jammu and Kashmir since 1962 is approximately 38,000 sq km. In addition to this, under the so called China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963, Pakistan illegally ceded 5,180 sq km of Indian territory in PoK to China.” In the eastern sector also, China illegally claims approximately 90,000 sq km of Indian Territory in Arunachal Pradesh, the Minister said. New Delhi is justified in arguing that if Pakistan claims that J&K is a disputed territory between India and Pakistan and that China endorses Pakistan’s claim through some of its objectionable actions like issuing Chinese visa to Kashmiris on an extra sheet of paper etc. then Pakistan had no right to cede more than five thousand square km of J&K territory to China. By doing so, Pakistan has exercised in no ambiguous words her sovereignty over the part of the land in PoK illegally occupied by her and also the sovereignty of India over her respective part. Put in simple words, this is clear acceptance of division of the State of Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan, a position which India has been rejecting outright from the very beginning. India has never agreed to concede an inch of her J&K territory to Pakistan. Obviously Pakistan concluded the clandestine treaty with China in 1963 essentially to win the favour of China and also her support in carrying forward her traditional hostility towards India.
Construction of Karakorum Highway connecting Chinese eastern province of Xingjian with Pakistan through Khunjarab Pass over the Karakorum has posed security threat to India’s northern border especially the State of Jammu and Kashmir. This Highway is also going to be the route over which China will be laying gas pipeline to bring Iranian gas to Xingjian via Pakistan. But more than all that has been said, China has cognizable military presence in PoK claiming that she is assisting Pakistan in building developmental infrastructure in Gilgit-Baltistan region. The nature and scope of “developmental infrastructure” has not been explained and India has reasons to raise doubts. China is trying for overland accessibility to Afghanistan via Wakhan corridor and has already asked Pakistan for military base in Northern Waziristan. All these activities have security dimensions not only for India but also for the entire region. This is what the Defence Minister might have had in his mind when he made the statement in the Parliament. India needs to put her act together.
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