Dec 22, 2010 : Many in India have expressed anger that China has substantially truncated the length of its disputed border with India to take out the portion represented by Jammu and Kashmir State, although New Delhi is yet to react to this development. The border between India and the People’s Republic of China constitute by the Indo-Tibetan border is now just 1,200 miles (2000 km) long, instead of 2,200 miles, a distance claimed by India, Indian newspaper reports Dec 20 cited China’s official media as saying.
This is seen as being in keeping with China’s changed position on Jammu and Kashmir, which it now considers a disputed territory to reflect its pro-Pakistan stand on the issue.
China’s new position means that it now no longer recognizes, vis-à-vis India, the border separating Jammu and Kashmir in India from Xinjiang and Tibet, both of which are under its occupation rule. This is seen as accounting for the Chinese exclusion of 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the border between the two counties.
However, According to Hindustan Times online Dec 20, China had stuck to the truncated disputed border claim for a long time. It noted that ahead of Premier Wen Jiabao's Dec 15-17 visit to New Delhi, Xinhua had reported that the Sino-India border being 2000 km was based on an official briefing by assistant foreign minister of China, Hu Zhengye. The People's Daily had reported the same on Jan 7, 2010, the report said.
That People's Daily report was quoted as having said, while covering the India-China defence dialogue, “China and India share a nearly 2,000-km border and disputed areas cover about 125,000 sq km on both sides." The Hindustan Times online report noted that China Daily too had mentioned the same in its report the same day. Also, the "2000-km-long" boundary was mentioned in China Daily in Aug’09 in a report on the 13th round of boundary talks between the two sides.
"The dispute on the length of the borderline was always there. There is nothing new in the media report," Rong Ying, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, a Chinese foreign ministry think-tank, was quoted as saying.
Nevertheless, an AHN news service report Dec 20 cited India’s Former External Affairs Minister Mr Yashwant Sinha as saying India should behave tit-for-tat while dealing with such matters. He was reported to have referred to the disputed status of Tibet and suggested that just like China does not recognize India’s sovereignty over J&K, India should also treat China similarly.
(Courtesy : www.tibetanreview.net)
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