(TibetanReview.net, Jan04’25) –India said Jan 3 that it had lodged a “solemn protest” with China over its creation of two new counties in Hotan prefecture of Xinjiang, saying they included territories that are parts of its Union Territory of Ladakh. It has said such Chinese moves will not lend legitimacy to its “illegal and forcible” occupation in the region.
The Chinese action will have no bearing on New Delhi’s consistent position regarding its sovereignty, the PTI news agency Jan 3 cited India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal as saying.
China grabbed Aksai Chin, a 38,000 sq km area of Ladakh, in the wake of its armed invasion and annexation of Tibet in the middle of the last century.
“We have lodged a solemn protest with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels,” Jaiswal has said.
China’s announcement on establishing the two counties came in the last week of Dec 2024, just days after Special Representatives of the two nations resumed boundary talks that had remained stalled for almost five years.
“We have seen the announcement pertaining to the establishment of two new counties in Hotan Prefecture of China. Parts of jurisdiction of these so-called counties fall in India’s Union Territory of Ladakh,” Jaiswal has said.
“We have never accepted the illegal Chinese occupation of Indian territory in this area,” he has said.
“The creation of new counties will neither have a bearing on India’s long-standing and consistent position regarding our sovereignty over the area nor lend legitimacy to China’s illegal and forcible occupation of the same.”