Fragile India-China thaw tested by reported fresh Himalayan border face-offs

A fragile rapprochement between China and India is facing a renewed test following reports of military face-offs along the Asian neighbours’ hotly contested border.

Last week, Shatrujeet Kapur, director general of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), said “confrontations with Chinese troops were continuing at multiple locations along the Arunachal Pradesh border”.

“In the past few days, a situation arose where face-off[s] happened at several locations in Arunachal and it still continues,” Kapur said at a military ceremony on Thursday, according to The Hindu.

The ITBP patrols the more than 3,000km (1,864-mile) long Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto, loosely demarcated border separating Chinese- and Indian-controlled territories in the high-altitude Himalayas.

Citing Indian government sources, The Hindu last week reported that since July the two sides have been engaged in a stand-off at Asphila, a mountainous area straddling southeastern Tibet’s Longzi county in the Zangnan region that is also claimed by India as Arunachal Pradesh.

According to the sources, the Chinese soldiers had pitched tents “around 6 to 7km within India’s perception of the LAC” after the brief confrontation.

Unverified footage appearing to show uniformed personnel in mountainous areas has gone viral in recent days, with users claiming it captures a military stand-off between the two sides.

On its official social media fact-check account, the Indian Army debunked several videos circulating online, saying they had been manipulated and falsely claimed Chinese control over areas along the Arunachal Pradesh border.

“Several social media accounts are circulating an unverified video with the claim, ‘Many Chinese soldiers beaten and captured by Indian Army at LAC during ongoing stand-off’,” according to the army.

“The footage is unauthenticated and is being falsely projected as a recent confrontation, leading to rumours and confusion about the ground situation at the LAC,” it added.

Beijing and New Delhi have sought to play down the reported resumption of border tensions.

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Without elaborating, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal on Friday said the situation in the border areas “gets disturbed from time to time” by the patrolling patterns of the Chinese side.

The two sides would continue to use existing diplomatic and military mechanisms to resolve “the outstanding issues” along the LAC, Jaiswal added.

Meanwhile, Beijing called for cooperation from New Delhi.

“China strictly abides by the relevant agreements and common understandings reached by the two countries and conducts normal border-patrol activities to safeguard territorial sovereignty and stability in the border areas,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Monday.

Beijing and New Delhi have in the past year moved to mend ties strained by confrontations at their ill-defined borders, including the 2020 Galwan Valley clash that left at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead, sending bilateral relations to some of the lowest levels in decades.

Direct flights between the two countries resumed in October last year after a five-year hiatus.

For the first time in seven years, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India last month, when he held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Brics summit.

According to India’s statement on the meeting at that time, the two leaders “reaffirmed that both countries should take a strategic and long-term perspective of their ties”, and it added that “differences should not become disputes”.