Sino-Indian clash a reminder of unsettled borders

The Dec 9 clash between Chinese and Indian troops in the eastern Himalayas, which left soldiers on both sides injured by New Delhi’s account, is another useful reminder that while Asia’s attention is often centred around the situation in the Taiwan Strait, an equally serious issue continues to fester along the Sino-Indian front. What makes it doubly urgent are reports that the recent clash was probably not the only one since a blood-soaked encounter between the two sides in the Western Himalayas in June 2020 left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead. That this month’s clash took place near Tawang, a Buddhist monastery town in Arunachal Pradesh, is particularly significant; it was this region that the Chinese entered in October 1962, at the start of a brief border war that has embittered bilateral ties in the six decades since.

Multiple rounds of negotiations since the 2020 incident in Galwan had brokered a sort of peace and a semblance of a mutual pullback from some of the contested areas. But clearly, the truce has been brittle. In the 30 months since the clash in Galwan, both sides have added fortifications; the Indians, in particular. Six Indian divisions have been moved from Pakistan-facing positions to the frontier with China. The long boundary is teeming with encampments, drones, artillery and missiles. An added complication: the United States and Indian armies conducted their annual exercises even closer to the disputed frontier this year, a gesture that was meant to get Beijing’s attention.