(TibetanReview.net, Aug15’26) – China’s official media has not specifically denied but simply described as hype allegations that its troops’ had made incursion into India’s Taksing border area of Arunachal Pradesh. And while both the state and central governments have rejected the allegations of the incursion, the political opposition is refusing to let the issues rest.
“Some Indian media outlets and regional political forces have recently sought to amplify allegations of an unverified China-India border confrontation, while official signals from Beijing and New Delhi have emphasized stability, communication and the importance of managing differences through established mechanisms,” said China’s Party-mouthpiece globaltimes.cn Aug 13.
The report said “the latest media speculation was partly triggered by claims made by the People’s Party of ‘the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ (PPA), a regional Indian political party.” It cited The Arunachal Times as saying “a four-member PPA ‘fact-finding committee’ led by former minister and party adviser Kahfa Bengia visited the so-called ‘Taksing area’ (known as Taxin, in Zangnan, Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region) on Jul 10 and subsequently alleged that Indian forces had been prevented from accessing several patrolling points.”
The report accused India’s ThePRint outlet of amplifying the allegations Aug 11, saying Chinese and Indian patrols had come “face to face” near “Taxin” in late July; and that the Chinese personnel subsequently left before returning in early August to set up “two or three tents”.
The report referred to official scepticisms in India about the allegations and added that these claims stood in contrast to the official diplomatic signals coming from both sides.
The report further noted: “Responding on Wednesday (Aug 12) to questions from Bloomberg and Reuters concerning social media claims about stepped-up Chinese military activity and a possible new border incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, ‘The China-India border situation is generally stable at the moment.’”
The report cited Qian Feng, director of the Research Department at Tsinghua University’s National Strategy Institute, as saying the fact that the two sides continue to communicate through established channels shows that the border situation has not developed in the direction of escalation portrayed by some Indian media.
The report said such “hype” also came amid another development concerning “Zangnan” (Southern Tibet, China’s name for Arunachal Pradesh); that “India on Aug 7 announced what it called ‘standard’ names for 27 locations in so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh,’ a move that some Indian media outlets portrayed as an effort to counter China and further connected with the latest reports of border tensions.”
And the report referred to China’s “firm rejection of the Indian move at that time. “Responding to the issue on Monday (Aug 10), spokesperson Guo said, ‘Zangnan region is China’s territory. China does not recognize the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ illegally set up by India’,” the report said.
Guo was stated to have said, “India’s attempt to replace names long used by China with its so-called ‘standard names’ is ‘illegal, null and void’,” and to have “stressed that it would not change the fact that Zangnan belongs to China.”
Hu Zhiyong, a professor from Zhejiang International Studies University and a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, has said one problem lies in the tendency of some Indian political figures to bind the boundary question too closely to the entire China-India relationship. “The boundary issue is one part of bilateral relations, which also encompass political, economic, diplomatic, security and people-to-people exchanges,’ Hu has said. “It should not be allowed to hijack the entire relationship.”
Meanwhile India’s Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Aug 14 demanded answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over reports that China had restricted Indian troops from patrolling certain areas of Arunachal Pradesh.
Kharge, posting on X, said India stands firmly behind its armed forces and remains united against any Chinese aggression, but the government must clarify whether Indian troops have lost access to areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
“After Galwan, now Arunachal Pradesh? Disturbing reports suggest that China is attempting to push further into areas in Arunachal Pradesh, an inalienable part of our nation. This demands immediate answers from the Modi Government,” Kharge has said.
Also writing on X, India’s leader of opposition in Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) Rahul Gandhi on Aug 14 alleged that China had stopped Indian Army patrols at several locations in Arunachal Pradesh and called the development “extremely alarming.”