With China being a country having territorial disputes with almost all its neighbours, its expansionist agenda, especially in areas bordering Tibet, has been a cause of concern for countries in the Himalayan region.
It has recently settled 147 families in one of three villages that have been built along the disputed Bhutan-China border.
Of this total, 38 families from the Tibetan city of Shigatse, were settled last year on December 28 in the newly expanded Tamalung village built along the Bhutan-China border, South China Morning Post said.
Built at the end of 2022, Tamalung village had initially 70 homes accommodating 200 people, but now it has been expanded to accommodate as many as 235 families, the Hong Kong-based English daily said citing reports from local media.
Another border village, Gyalaphug has also seen its expansion with it currently having more than 150 houses, the Hong Kong-based daily said.
Analysts say China’s move to build roads, settle villages and develop other infrastructure in disputed areas closer to Bhutan is part of the same design that it has adopted through an imaginary nine-dash line to claim as much as 90% of the South China Sea.
As per Foreign Policy, a US-based magazine, Gyalaphug village which lies in the region of BeyulKhenpajong, some 12,000 feet in the Himalayan mountains, and the neighbouring Menchuma Valley has witnessed development of tens of miles of road and several key military buildings by 2021.
Interestingly, to camouflage its motive behind the strategy to settle Chinese nationals in areas bordering Bhutan, China has named these settlements as “moderate prosperity villages.”
And People’s Daily, China’s state-backed newspaper has put the number of those villages dotting areas bordering the Tibetan Administrative Region as over 620. They were established by the end of 2021, said People’s Daily.
What is, however, worrisome is that China is actively engaged in settling its people in areas which are claimed by Bhutan.
Both Beyul Khenpajong and Menchuma Valley fall within Bhutanese territory of “hidden valley” which is considered sacred by the people of the Himalayan nation, with King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk’s family “tracing its ancestral heritage” to the area, Foreign Policy quoted Robert Barnett, an expert on Tibet and the China-Bhutan border as saying.
It is all happening even as Bhutan and China are holding talks to settle their lingering border dispute.
In October 2021, the two countries signed an MoU for a three-stage process to resolve festering border disputes.
It was never made officially public, but various media reports, including South China Morning Post suggested that it involved, delimitation of the border on paper, through visiting the demarcated area and then formally declaring the agreed boundary between the two countries.
In October 2023, the then Bhutanese Foreign Affairs and External Trade Minister Tandi Dorji went to Beijing to hold 25th round of boundary talks with Chinese officials.
Later he told the media that the two countries are nearing the completion of the three-step roadmap.
Early in 2023, then Bhutanese Prime Minister LotayTshering in an interview with a Belgian newspaper said that demarcation of the Bhutan-China boundary would be settled at an early date.
The key areas of dispute between Bhutan and China are on the western border along the Chumbi Valley and two northern areas of Jakarlung and Pasamlung valleys.
Since 2020, China has also raised an additional claim over Doklam, which was the site of standoff between India and China in 2017.
Both China and Russia declared limitless partnership between them in 2022, yet Moscow has to be always on its toes as Beijing in its revised map released in August 2023 shows Russia’s Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island as part of China.
Beijing claims that as many as 764 sq km territory of Bhutan, including areas of Jakarlung, Pasamlung valleys and Doklam are part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. But analysts term China’s claim as ‘blatant.’
They say China is pushing forward its expansionist design in the name of Tibet.
As per Foreign Policy, China is adopting all tricks up its sleeve to force Bhutan to cede areas of Jakarlung, Pasamlung valleys and Doklam to Beijing.
Analysts say China’s move to build roads, settle villages and develop other infrastructure in disputed areas closer to Bhutan is part of the same design that it has adopted through an imaginary nine-dash line to claim as much as 90% of the South China Sea.
Beijing has a regular fight with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei over the South China Sea.
In 2016, when the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, handling a dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, ruled in favour of Manila by stating that Beijing had no legal basis for maritime claims over the South China Sea, Beijing reacted with outrage to the judgement.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said, “China opposes and will never accept any claim or action based on these rulings.”
The Foreign Ministry of China also said: “China solemnly declares that the award (of international tribunal) is null and void and has no binding force.”
Since then, Beijing has heavily militarised the South China Sea by building military infrastructure, placing missiles and other weapons on islands spread across this water body of the Pacific Ocean.
These developments indicate in clear terms about China’s expansionist designs. It shows that it can tear asunder any agreement or trust that comes before its territorial ambitions.
It is not allowing the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei to engage in fishing or other activities like exploring for gas or oil in areas of the South China Sea that they claim belong to them.
Besides Southeast Asian nations, it has a regular fight with Japan in the East China Sea over the Senkaku Islands.
Both China and Russia declared limitless partnership between them in 2022, yet Moscow has to be always on its toes as Beijing in its revised map released in August 2023 shows Russia’s Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island as part of China.
The Island, called as Heixiazi by China, sits at the confluence of two border rivers, the Ussuri and Amur. After more than a century of territorial dispute, Russia ceded roughly half of the island to China in 2008.
Russia also abandoned its army base there. In return, Beijing agreed that it would not lay claim over the territory, but suddenly in its revised map released last year, China has shown the entire Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island as its part, giving Russians sleepless nights.
These developments indicate in clear terms about China’s expansionist designs. It shows that it can tear asunder any agreement or trust that comes before its territorial ambitions.
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