8 June 2017 12:00 am
THE HINDU, 07th JUNE< 2017
The Pentagon has said that tension continues to exist along the disputed portions of the India-China border even though the economic relationship between the two countries has increased in recent years.
According to the Pentagon, China’s use of force in territorial disputes has varied widely throughout its history.
“Tensions persist along disputed portions of the Sino-Indian border, where both countries patrol with the armed forces,” the Pentagon said in its annual report to Congress.
In September 2016, an Indian patrol observed that more than 40 Chinese troops had set up a temporary shelter within Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh, which China also claims as South Tibet, it said.
“The two sides conducted flag-officer level meetings where they agreed to maintain peace, and then withdrew to mutually acceptable positions,” the Pentagon said as it listed out other border disputes that China has with neighbouring countries, prominent among them being the East China Sea.
Some disputes led to war, as in border conflicts with India in 1962 and Vietnam in 1979, it said, adding that a contested border with the former Soviet Union during the 1960s raised the possibility of nuclear war.
In more recent cases involving land border disputes, China has sometimes been willing to compromise with and even offer concessions to its neighbours.
“Since 1998, China has settled 11 land-based territorial disputes with six of its neighbours,” the Pentagon said.