E-Paper
India and China: A lookback
A chronology of significant events leading to the war over frontiers between India and China from 1899 to 1962.
March 14, 1899 - Sir Claude McDonald proposed an Aksai Chin boundary.
1914 - McMahon Line declared as boundary in NEFA (North East Frontier Agency).
1947 - India becomes a republic separate from Great Britain.
1949 - Communists form new government, People's Republic of China.
April 1950 - KM Panikker appointed first Indian Ambassador to China.
October, 1950 - Chinese assert authority over Tibet. Troops cross the Sino-Tibetan boundary, and move towards Lhasa.
November 1950 - India opposes UN resolutions branding China as an aggressor in the Korean War.
December 1950 - Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru advocates China's membership in the United Nations in a Parliamentary debate held in New Delhi.
April, 1954 - India and China sign "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence".
December, 1954 - Tribesmen discontent in Tibet leads to increased Chinese military presence in Tibet.
March, 1956 - China begins construction of a military highway to link Sinkiang and Tibet.
September 1957 - India first learns of the Chinese highway in "India's territory".
January 1959 - Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai spells out for the first time China's claims to over 40,000 square miles of Indian territory both in Ladakh and NEFA.
April 1959 - Dalai Lama escapes from Lhasa and crosses into Indian territory. India's decision to grant asylum to him sours relations with Beijing.
August 1959 - China's offensive propaganda campaign for the liberation of Ladakh, Sikkim and Bhutan worries India.
August, 1959 - Chinese troops open fire on an Indian Picket near Migyitun in Eastern Ladakh killing one Indian soldier. They also overrun the Indian outpost at Longju, in North-eastern Ladakh.
October 1959 - Chinese troops fire on an Indian patrol in the Aksai Chin area killing nine soldiers and capturing ten.
November 1959 - Zhou Enlai proposes a 20 km withdrawal by forces from both sides of the Mcmahon line and Line of Actual Control.
April 1960 - A meeting in New Delhi between Zhou Enlai and Nehru to address the boundary question ends in deadlock.
April 1960 - China refuses to acknowledge the Officials' Report - a detailed study of all historical documents, records, maps and other materials relevant to the boundary question - published by India as the basis for resolution of the boundary dispute.
October 1960 - Indian Opposition leaders report 52 violations of the Indian air space by the Chinese troops in NEFA, Uttar Pradesh and Ladakh.
(With inputs from GlobalSecurity.org)
