E-Paper
More evidence of China building villages in disputed areas along borders with India, Bhutan
Satellite imagery of the area from May 2020 showed no construction activity within the disputed region of about 100 sq km. However, satellite imagery of the same region from November this year showed four villages where construction work was still ongoing.
Further evidence has emerged of China constructing villages in disputed sections of its borders with India and Bhutan, an activity believed to be part of Beijing’s efforts to bolster its claim on these regions.
According to satellite imagery posted by the Twitter user who uses the handle @detresfa_, China has built at least four new villages nearly three to four kilometres within disputed territory along the border with Bhutan.
These villages are in an area of about 100 sq km that is under Chinese occupation and located a short distance from Doklam, the region where Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a faceoff for 73 days in 2017.
Satellite imagery of the area from May 2020 showed no construction activity within the disputed region of about 100 sq km. However, satellite imagery of the same region from November this year showed four villages where construction work was still ongoing.
The satellite imagery showed several rows of houses and new roads at all the four villages. Two of the villages are larger than the others, and all are located in mountainous terrain.
Satellite imagery obtained by NDTV from Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs, two leading imagery providers, also showed a village with at least 60 buildings built by China in disputed territory along the border in Shi-Yomi district of Arunachal Pradesh.
This is the second such village in a disputed region of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as “south Tibet”. It is located 93 km east of the first village with some 100 homes, whose existence was first reported by the media in January this year.
Experts have contended the second village falls within Indian territorial claims.
A report submitted on November 3 by the US department of defence to the US Congress said China had built the large 100-home village in disputed territory between the Tibet Autonomous Region and Arunachal Pradesh.
The external affairs ministry responded to the US report last week by saying India has never accepted such “illegal occupation” of its territory and will takes all steps to safeguard the country’s sovereignty.
The Indian side has stepped up the building of infrastructure, including roads and bridges, in border areas in the wake of China’s construction activities in regions it has illegally occupied over the decades, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on November 11.
The construction of villages in disputed areas follows the upgrading and construction of Chinese military facilities, including heliports and missile bases, all along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the aftermath of the 2017 standoff at Doklam.
A report released last year by Stratfor, a leading security and intelligence consultancy, had said China has more than doubled the number of airbases, air defence positions and heliports near the LAC since 2017. China began building at least 13 new military facilities near the LAC after the Doklam standoff, and work on four heliports began after the faceoff in Ladakh began in May last year, the report said.
