Though off-the-record, the message of China’s “informal threat” officially reached New Delhi, which then made it clear at the military-level meeting that the Indian Army will not tolerate any more transgression into this area by Chinese troops. This has created a bit of tension, but the general view is that, at present, the issue had not gone beyond posturing.

Going back in history, Chinese troops used to cross the area during patrols but this was attributed to the general confusion that occurs during patrols along the Line of Actual Control. In many other areas, Indian troops, too, would cross Chinese territory for the same practical reasons like taking the shorter and negotiable route which may involve bit of transgression.

The row began to build up last year when Chinese troops started to frequent the area far too often — this year too about 50 Chinese transgressions have been reported in this area — and then started building a road towards the end of the year that crossed this tract of land.

When India objected to this at a local military commander level, China claimed that the area fell in its territory. A shocked Indian side then produced a 1924 map of the Survey of India where the stone cairns have been identified and shown as part of Indian territory. When China did not pay much attention to this, India even lodged a diplomatic protest in February with the Chinese government on this issue. This was after China had protested other troop deployments in Sikkim resulting from relocation of India troops from the western border. As a result of this diplomatic escalation, the road construction near the area came to a halt.

... contd.