The current tension between the world’s two most populous countries, India and China has been ongoing for over a month. We know that for strategic reasons, the tri-junction Dokhlam area (also known as Dokh La or Danglong) where territories of India, China and Bhutan converge has been a flashpoint and neither India nor China is currently willing to back down from their stated positions. We look at the current situation and the concerns being raised about the situation.
It is a small dagger shaped piece of land that is located between Bhutan and the Indian state of Sikkim. China claims that this piece of land is a part of the Tibetan autonomous region and therefore a part of China while it is the Indian position that this bit of land belongs to Bhutan.
China is constructing a road in the area that it claims as its own. India feels that there is no need for such a road to be built and has concerns about the Chinese presence so close to the narrow corridor of land that connects the rest of India with the north east; aka the chicken’s neck area. Some commentators feel that this is China's attempt to try and isolate the North-East area of India.
Continuing well over a month, this is the longest impasse between the armies of the two countries since the 1962 Indo-China war. According to India’s external affairs ministry the proposed Chinese construction could have serious security implications. For its part China claims that there have been illegal and unwarranted incursions by Indian forces into its territory.
The Royal Government of Bhutan has seconded India’s stance that this is Bhutanese territory. Bhutan lodged a protest against the Chinese government in June 2017.
US expert Jeff M. Smith, a scholar at the American Foreign Policy Council, has opined that the current standoff could lead to a war. According to him, both sides have taken hard-line positions from which it is difficult to back down.
Though the scale of mobilisation is unprecedented in recent years, analysts say that actual armed conflict is unlikely. About 3000 troops from both sides are currently located close to Dokhlam and right now, neither side is blinking. Reports emerging from the Western media also acknowledge the China’s East Asia expansion and it’s the way that it is ‘muscling’ its way into territories not its own.
The hashtag #ChowmeinWars on twitter saw the sharing of cartoons such as these. Some suggested a strategic alliance with Mongolia while others demanded the return of Aksai Chin to India before anything else.
Twitter cartoon
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