India and China have had tense relations since 1962. The main issue is that China does not accept the McMahon Line, a border drawn in 1914 between India, Tibet, and China. After gaining independence in 1949, China took control of Tibet, which made the situation more complicated. In 1962, China attacked India and took over the Aksai Chin area near Tibet. Since then, China’s position on the border has changed from time to time, while India has tried to maintain peaceful and friendly relations. Both countries signed several agreements to keep peace along the border. However, China has not always followed these agreements and has continued to move into areas claimed by India. India has repeatedly tried to solve the problems through talks and diplomacy, but China continues to strongly insist on its own claims over Indian territory.
Since 1962, every government in India has attempted to cultivate cordial relations with China. In 2003, the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, head of the BJP-led NDA government, accepted Tibet as part of China. In return, China accepted Sikkim as part of India, but soon after, China staked its claim on India’s Arunachal Pradesh. At that time, even the opposition in India did not oppose the Vajpayee government’s move to recognize Tibet as part of China. However, when China displayed Arunachal Pradesh on its map shortly after in 2003, it sparked strong protests in the Indian Parliament, with the opposition Congress party creating a massive uproar in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
China remained unmoved by the Indian government’s strong protest letter. Even after this, China continued to claim Arunachal Pradesh as its own territory. It adopted a policy of issuing visas with a different attachment to the passports issued by the Indian government to Arunachal residents for travel to China, and audaciously declared them its citizens. India’s protest had no significant impact on China, and when the Congress-led UPA government of Dr. Manmohan Singh was formed at the center in 2004, China even opposed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s development projects in Arunachal Pradesh and resented his visit to Arunachal Pradesh. Since then, China has maintained a similar attitude towards Indian citizens from Arunachal Pradesh. However, the recent treatment meted out to Prema Thongdok, an Indian woman of Arunachal origin who had been living in London for the past 14 years, at Shanghai Airport is unacceptable to India. Prema ji’s Indian passport showed her birthplace as Arunachal Pradesh. She was traveling from London to Japan via Shanghai. Security personnel at Shanghai airport detained her for 18 hours and told her she was a Chinese citizen. She barely contacted the Indian Consulate in Shanghai, where a team of Indian officials came to her aid and presented her case to the Chinese authorities. The Chinese officials insisted that she travel to Japan via Chinese airspace, as she was a Chinese citizen. Prema ji hails from the Rupa tehsil of West Kameng district in Arunachal Pradesh.
India has taken serious note of this incident and has expressed strong protest through its embassy in Beijing. The Chinese embassy in New Delhi has also been alerted. The question is why does China continue to engage in such activities? This is because the broad formula of the high-level mechanism established in 2005 for border talks with China is that any area in the border region under the governance of a particular country should be considered part of that country. More than two dozen meetings have been held in this mechanism, but no universally accepted solution has been reached. India’s National Security Advisor leads the Indian side, and China’s counterpart, the Foreign Minister. China’s encroachment into India’s Ladakh region in 2020 was interpreted as China’s intention to alter the Line of Control between India and China. However, after India’s strong retaliation, the situation is no longer tense, but it cannot be described as normal either. India and China have at least 50,000 troops deployed in Ladakh. Despite this, China continues to carry out construction work in the border areas. China’s stance on Arunachal Pradesh also remains suspicious. In fact, it is China’s stubbornness that despite the dialogue mechanism, it continues to do such absurd acts and keeps troubling India.
