(TibetanReview.net, Feb20’24) – Bhutan has so far downplayed the controversy posed by China’s continued building and expansion of new villages in disputed occupied-Tibet-border territory, but Thimphu’s closest partner India is keeping a close eye on developments amid suggestions that the two sides were close to reaching a settlement, reported the scmp.com Feb 19. The disputed border area spans around 495 sq km (191 square miles) along Bhutan’s northern and western borders with Chinese occupied Tibet. In addition, China recently laid claim to a reserve area in eastern Bhutan as well.
At least three villages have been built in the mountainous region separating the two countries, with some doubling in size in recent times, the report said.
The building of the new villages and, especially, their rapid expansion began as a poverty alleviation scheme but serves a dual national security role, the report said, citing Chinese Communist Party officials.
While Bhutan has so far downplayed the controversy posed by these villages, its closest partner India is keeping a close eye on developments in the disputed border areas, the report said.
Bhutan and China do not have formal relations, but have been in boundary talks since 1984, achieving partial progress over the years on some of their territorial disagreements. In 1998, they agreed to avoid unilateral change to the boundary’s status quo.
Negotiations speeded up after China’s post-pandemic reopening, with Bhutanese and Chinese officials establishing a joint technical team to mark out the border at their 13th expert group meeting in Beijing last August.
And in Oct 2023, the two countries’ foreign ministries held their 25th round of official border talks, seven years after they last convened in 2016.
Also, last March, then prime minister Lotay Tshering told Belgian newspaper La Libre that the villages were not built on Bhutanese soil and his government decided not to “make a big deal” out of them.
He also said the two countries were nearing the end of their “three-step road map” to resolve the dispute – from marking the border on paper, through visiting the demarcated area, to formally declaring the agreed boundary.
While Bhutan is dependent on India for trade and investments, New Delhi has not dictated Thimphu’s foreign policy since 2007, when both countries agreed to a more independent Bhutanese voice over its external affairs, the report said.
Nevertheless, New Delhi “has been very wary” about a possible border settlement and formal diplomatic ties between Beijing and Thimphu, the report said, citing an editorial by The Hindu newspaper in Oct 2023.
While officials continue to hold border talks, The border county of Lhozhag (Tibetan: Lhodrag) has already announced plans in its 2023 annual report to further expand two of the new border villages – Gyalaphug and Tamalung – into towns, the report said.
Meanwhile, in one such remote village in the Himalayas, 18 new Chinese residents stood waiting to enter their newly built homes. Each carried a freshly framed portrait of China’s President Xi Jinping – large enough to leave only their heads and lower legs exposed – while behind them a bright red banner welcomed them in Chinese and Tibetan script, the report noted.
It was Dec 28 and they were the first batch of people – made up of 38 households from the Tibetan city of Shigatse – to move in to the newly expanded Tamalung village, the report said, citing the WeChat account of Tibet Federation of Industry and Commerce.
It was stated to be one of at least three villages built by China inside the disputed zone.
The report said local governments in the Tibet autonomous region led a rapid expansion of border villages last year, with Tamalung doubling in size in the latter half of 2023. Satellite imagery – taken by US-based Maxar Technologies seven days before the residents moved in – were stated to show 147 new houses.
Local media reports have said the village expansion was designed to accommodate 235 households, in addition to the 200 people who were living there in just 70 homes at the end of 2022.
Chinese officials have been cited as saying the villages were part of China’s state-led poverty alleviation scheme to provide better living conditions but that they doubled as “citadels” to strengthen national security
Lhozhag (Tibetan: Lhodrag) county of Shannan (Lhoka) Prefecture – which administers Tamalung – has spent an estimated 26 million yuan (US$3.6 million) over six months on infrastructure for the village, the report said, citing its 2023 funding report on poverty alleviation.
To the east of Tamalung, another border village, Gyalaphug, also doubled in size last year after around 16 sq km (10 square miles) was razed to make way for more than 150 houses. The report cited satellite imagery as showing the new homes sitting next to an existing four rows of dwellings and a Communist Party community centre with a small library and other amenities.
Gyalaphug was established in 2007 with just two homes and no water or electricity. It was developed into a model village from 2016-18 as part of Xi’s “moderate prosperity” poverty alleviation campaign, the report noted.
China’s Party mouthpiece People’s Daily reported that more than 620 “border moderate prosperity villages” were established by the end of 2021, Xi’s deadline for the party’s centenary goal to alleviate poverty in the country. And local officials and state media have described the dual function of the villages – to provide modern housing and defend the border – as coming from the very top of the party.
Lhozhag county party secretary Zhao Tianwu reportedly told his officials in 2020 that Xi’s ideology about border governance and “stabilising Tibet” was the crux of the village policy. Xi raised Tibet’s national security role in 2013, at his first parliamentary session as party chief.
Construction tender documents have been stated to show that Lhozhag county’s development and reform commission tendered much of the roads and housing works in the disputed border zone. These included a 22km (14 miles) paved road linking the two villages in the mountainous region. Dozens of other houses were also built along the road, none of which could be attributed to any village in the Chinese government’s official list of administrative divisions, the report noted.
What is more, some of the projects were funded by other provincial governments and state-owned enterprises under the central government, including the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation, through their aid funds for Tibet.
Incentives have been offered to encourage people from outside the region to settle in these new border villages. Last year, Tibet authorities offered up to 12,800 yuan (US$1,780) as an incentive to residents in other parts of the region to resettle in the border area, the report said, citing its budget papers.
Besides, the Shannan city government has also said it will establish a trial scheme of “professional border residents” to increase the size of the defence force and speed up the “deep cooperation between the military and civilians”.
State media reports have been cited as saying immigration police and village leaders already patrolled the borders, often carrying Chinese flags and spraying words and images – including the characters for “China” and the flag – on rocks and tree trunks.
Lhozhag county was stated to have stressed in its 2023 annual report the need for cooperation “between the party, the government, the police and civilians to secure the border, strengthen frontline patrols and make sure that no one can get in and no one can get out”.