From the very start of 2020, the world has seen its fair share of humanitarian and geopolitical crises. One of the most recent crises is the border conflict between China and India. The Himalayan border that runs through the Ladakh area of Kashmir, has always been a cause for dispute between India and China. Clashes between Chinese and Indian military troops have periodically happened in the area, however the conflict that erupted on June 15-16 was the first with fatal consequences since 1957. It has costed 20 lives on the Indian side and a still unknown number of lives on the Chinese side (Davidson & Doherty, 2020).
In order to understand this conflict and its implications today, one must understand the specific region in which it is taking place. The western Himalayas are a very high-altitude region filled with valleys and glaciers, surrounded by peaks that are seismically active and transform very often. This makes it extremely hard to create accurate maps of the region and establish borders. The people inhabiting these valleys, Tibetans, Ladakhis, Balti, and Gilgit have long since established trading treaties with one another and have functioned independently of the empires surrounding them. Bitish cartographers in the 19th century tried to delineate the borders, but this proved an impossible task due to the reluctance of the locals to help and the difficult geography of the region. The maps ended up being inaccurate and incomplete (Gamble and Davis. 2020). After the British retreated from India, neither China nor India tried to territorialize this region that lies between the Ladakh region controlled by India and the southern part of the Xinjiang Chinese province. The ambiguity of the borders became a problem when the two Asian superpowers tried to formalize the border when China invaded Tibet in 1950 and in 1962 this dispute erupted into a war which ended with China’s victory (Shukla, 2020). No official border was negotiated. This led to the formation of the so-called Line of Actual Control that roughly separated the Indian-controlled territory from the Chinese-controlled part. Since the end of the war, there have been repeated conflicts between the patrolling troops, however none has led to any loss of lives up until recently (Davidson and Doherty, 2020).
Since late April, the situation has become increasingly intense, as China sent an increased number of troops into the grey areas along the Line of Actual Control. Lately the government has been trying to be more assertive and aggressive in its foreign policy. This was reflected in the increased building of infrastructure in these disputed areas. It can be seen also as trying to hold the dominant position, now that India has significantly improved its military infrastructure on its side of the LAC (Davidson and Doherty, 2020). In late May the Indian authorities reported several cases of fist-fighting between Indian and Chinese patrols. Following these uncommon, and yet not unprecedented cases, the authorities also reported that China had sent an increased number of soldiers and artillery in multiple places along the border where Ladakh meets Tibet, as well as crossing the Galwan River, a territory that the Indian government considered settled. On the 15th of June the violent conflict erupted near the Galwan river and 20 Indian soldiers were killed. The use of firearms in this area has been prohibited by both countries, leaving the fights to be fought with blunt objects. Until now there has been no report from China about its number of casualties during the fight (Smith, 2020).
The conflict has sparked a lot of protest not only within India but also in other communities worldwide. It was therefore not a surprise that the virtual community did not waste any time posting content to show the gravity of this conflict. Unfortunately, the BBC has proved that most of the content is fake and has nothing to do with the recent clash. There are many examples currently circulating on the internet, but the most famous was is the video that allegedly claimed to be showing the fight between the two patrols on the evening of the 15th of June. The footage claimed to show how well the Indian soldiers fought and defeated the Chinese patrol. However, it was found out that the same footage was posted also in 2017 and 2019 again claiming to show the fights between the patrols. The same was proven also for the pictures and footage that showed an emotional display of the Indian soldiers mourning their casualties, which was also fake because it was from another incident that happened in Kashmir more than a year ago (Reality Check team, 2020).
This recent clash between the two Asian superpowers will have significant geopolitical consequences, not only on a local level but also in the international one. Both countries have governments that are grounded in nationalism and see their military status as a source of pride and national dominance. It needs to be noted that similar conflicts have broken also in the past, but this was the first one to have casualties. This loss will make the future attempts to de-escalation increasingly complicated (Davidson and Doherty, 2020). It is still unclear how New Delhi and Beijing will approach this issue. Will this clash push India to reconsider its national alliances? Will Beijing take any steps to de-escalate the situation by pulling away from the disputed areas? These questions remain yet to be answered.
Author: Keti Bocaj
Davidson, H. & Doherty, B. (2020)
Explainer: what is the deadly India-China border dispute about? theguardian.com https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/explainer-what-is-the-deadly-india-china-border-dispute-about
Gamble, R. & Davis, A. (2020) The Big Lesson of the India-China Conflict: Borders Don’t Work at High Altitude. thediplomat.com https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/the-big-lesson-of-the-india-china-conflict-borders-dont-work-at-high-altitude/
Reality check team. (2020) Galwan Valley: The fake news about India and China’s border clash. BBC.com
https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c1newxlp4qwt/china-india-border-dispute
Shukla, A. (2020). How China and India Came to Lethal Blows. nytimes.com https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/opinion/China-India-conflict.html
Smith, J. M. (2020) The Galwan Killings Are the Nail in the Coffin for China and India’s Relationship. foreignpolicy.com https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/26/galwan-border-china-india-war-conflict/
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/world/asia/india-china-border-clashes.html