MINGLING-LIKE POMEGRANATE SEEDS

The tremendous development on the Tibetan side of the Sino-Indian border, particularly the String of model villages’, and also the incredible infrastructure development needs to be closely watched in Delhi, with suitable measures taken to improve the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, argues CLAUDE ARPI

-  CLAUDE ARPI

On February 18, 2024, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that three villages had been built in the mountainous region separating Bhutan and Tibet (China). The next day the Indian press woke up to a situation which had started in 2017.

Quoting Chinese Communist Party officials, the Hong Kong-based newspaper noted: “The rapid expansion began as a poverty alleviation scheme, but serves a dual national security role.”

It mentioned that a first batch of people – 38 households from Shigatse, Tibet’s second-largest city – moved to the newly expanded Tamalung village: “The village is one of three built by China inside the disputed zone. Local governments in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) led a rapid expansion of border villages last year, with Tamalung doubling in size in the latter half of 2023. …Local media reports 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.”

Tamalung is one of the areas of Northern Bhutan claimed by China; it has now been included in the Lhobrag (or Lhozhag for the Chinese) county of TAR’s Lhoka City/Prefecture.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the border construction “will not influence [China’s] border talks with Bhutan. …The two sides are on track to push for further border talks.”