India-China Border: Making of a Border
• The India-China border, located in the Himalayas, is indeterminate and inaccurate due to its location in an unpopulated area.
• The border was created by the Manchu and British empires, making it unpredictable.
• Post-Independence, it would have been prudent for both countries to establish a precise border.
• India’s position was based on confidence in British-era maps, not actual control on the ground.
• The conflict began when China built a highway through the Aksai Chin to control Tibet.
• China proposed a Line of Actual Control in 1959 and a swap in 1960, but India refused.
• India’s attempt to recapture Aksai Chin led to friction with China, leading to the 1962 India-China war.
• After the war, China withdrew to areas north of the McMahon Line in the east, but retained some areas captured in the west (Ladakh).
Post-War Developments and Post-War Relations
Post-War Relations
• Both sides remained distant from the Sino-Indian border for nearly 1.5 decades.
• In 1975, India formed a high-level China Study Group to monitor the border.
• In 1960, Zhou Enlai proposed a swap where India would concede the Chinese position in Aksai Chin in exchange for China’s claim over Arunachal Pradesh.
• The 1962 India-China war resulted from India’s attempt to recapture Aksai Chin.
• In 1979, Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Beijing, restoring normalcy with India’s neighbours, Pakistan and China.
• Deng Xiaoping, China’s supreme leader, suggested a revival of the 1960 Zhou proposal.
• In 1983, China proposed the ‘LAC Plus’, a proposal that India should concede areas captured in 1962 in Ladakh.
Negotiations
• Initial border talks resumed in 1981, but the Chinese pushed their package deal, while India wanted sector-by-sector talks.
• The Indian side felt that the Chinese were coming around to their view, but this was mistaken.
• In 1985, China demanded India concede the Tawang tract as part of the settlement, a shift in China’s domestic Tibet policy.
• Indian and Chinese troops clashed on the border in Nathu La and Cho La in Sikkim in 1967, but things settled down thereafter.
• In 1983, Indian officials began visiting Wangdung, where the first clashes of the 1962 war occurred.
• Under Operation Falcon, India moved its forces forward along the entire LAC, revealing a significant change in the Indian Army.
Sino-Indian Territorial Issues is important topic for Civil service exam (WBCS).
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