On the eve of India hosting the G20 meeting in New Delhi, China produced a so-called “standard map” coopting portions of eastern Ladakh in accordance with the rejected 1959 line and Arunachal Pradesh in the Middle Kingdom aside from Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India, and parts of Aksai Chin were occupied by Mao’s China in the 1950s, even prior to the disastrous 1962 war, so the Modi government immediately refuted and rejected this cartographic expansion by Beijing. The Panchsheel Agreement was being signed by India in 1954, but China was busy building a roadway across Aksai Chin that connected occupied Tibet with occupied Sinkiang (now Xinjiang), with the then-governing body mostly unaware of the situation.
Given that it raises major concerns about whether President Xi Jinping is inclined to attend the G20 summit in the Indian capital or has alternative intentions, the timing of China’s release of the map certainly has foreboding implications. China reportedly publishes the standard map every year, but this is the first time India has really protested Beijing’s territorial claims to the Middle Kingdom.
Why would Beijing publish the supposedly standard map and have it spread by its propaganda media on social media platforms is the bigger question. The solution can be found at the just finished BRICS conference in Johannesburg, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi briefly spoke with President Xi Jinping in the summit’s leaders’ lounge. It is believed that China wants to meet with India privately outside of the summit in order to push for normalisation of relations without making any concessions regarding the unresolved issues of the Depsang Bulge and Demchok in Eastern Ladakh. The formal meeting between the two leaders could not take place due to PM Modi’s schedule constraints, and was instead restricted to a brief interaction.
Even during the brief conversation, PM Modi voiced his worries on the border dispute, making it very clear that the only way to de-escalate tensions and move towards normalisation of relations is by withdrawal from the border with East Ladakh. The other two sticking points must also be resolved.
It is clear that Prime Minister Modi’s clear statement that normal relations can only return after the PLA withdraws its troops from occupied Aksai Chin and the Indian Army is again granted patrolling rights in the Depsang Bulge and CNN junction in Demchok has angered President Xi Jinping. It is not difficult to assume that China produced the ostensible standard map to send India a lesson. The Modi administration’s complete rejection of Chinese territorial claims is a separate issue.
China has made it abundantly apparent by purposefully releasing the so-called standard map on the day of the G20 that it views India as an enemy and will exert coercive pressure on that country as a result of its tight links to the US and the Quad countries. In order to exert pressure on India’s western borders, China will continue to maintain a military presence along the 3488 km LAC and arm its ally Pakistan. By May 2020 transgressions in East Ladakh, the PLA has thrown both the bilateral peace and tranquilly agreements from 1993 and 1996 into the trash, so India needs to be ready for the worst when it comes to China. Modi’s India has bigger ambitions than being Communist China’s sidekick by becoming a regional power, so India needs to be prepared for the worst. In due course, India will respond to China’s geographic growth.
