(TibetanReview.net, Dec29’24) –Even as the two countries struggle, with some amount of success in recent times, to normalize their bilateral relations in the face of longstanding border issues, China has created two new counties in Xinjiang of which one is made up mainly of Indian territory it illegally occupied in Aksai Chin after it annexed Tibet in the middle of the last century.
The People’s Government of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had announced the establishment of two new counties in the region – He’an County and Hekang County – reported the deccanherald.com Dec 29, citing China’s official Xinhua news agency this week.
“The establishment of the counties, both administered by Hotan Prefecture, has been approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council,” Xinhua was quoted as saying.
Hongliu and Xeyidula townships have been declared as the “county seats” (administrative headquarters) of He’an and Hekang respectively.
The report noted that the He’an county encompasses a large part of the 38000 sq km of areas India accuses China of illegally occupying in Aksai Chin.
The deccanherald.com report said that while India has not yet officially reacted to it, sources in New Delhi have remarked that such unilateral moves by China would not have any bearing on the bilateral negotiations to resolve the boundary dispute.
The report said the Chinese move came just 10 days after the Special Representatives of the two nations restarted the boundary negotiation, which had been stalled for almost five years.
The Special Representatives of New Delhi and Beijing for boundary negotiations – India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi – met in the capital of the communist country on Dec 18.
They held the 23rd round of boundary negotiations, thus restarting a process that remained stalled for five years after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s aggressive moves along the Line of Actual Control and the Indian Army’s counter-deployment in Apr-May 2020 led to a military stand-off in eastern Ladakh.
Apart from the about 38,000 sq km of India’s territory in Aksai Chin, which borders eastern Ladakh, Pakistan ceded to China about 5,180 sq. km of India’s territory in Saksgam Valley in 1963.
Beijing, on the other hand, claims the Arunachal Pradesh state of India as part of the territory of China and calls it “Zangnan” (south Tibet), on the basis of its claim of sovereignty over occupied Tibet.