{"id":28026,"date":"2020-06-20T07:06:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T01:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=28026"},"modified":"2020-06-20T07:06:51","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T01:36:51","slug":"china-lays-claim-to-entire-galwan-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=28026","title":{"rendered":"China lays claim to entire Galwan Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is being seen as an expansion of its previously known territorial claims in the area.
<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s claims to the entire Galwan valley in Ladakh, attributed on Friday by a Chinese strategic expert to \u201chistorical rights\u201d going back to the Qing Dynasty, are being seen as an expansion of previously known Beijing\u2019s territorial claims in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The claims mark a shift from the past, and suggest China now claims territory west of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and possibly up to the confluence of the Galwan and Shyok rivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While most Chinese maps show almost all of the Galwan river within Chinese territory, the western edge of the river where it meets the Shyok was not shown as Chinese territory previously in earlier maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, a leading Chinese strategic expert on border affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), an official think-tank, made the claim to the entire valley in an interview with State media, citing \u201cmultiple accounts from the Qing Dynasty\u201d that showed \u201chistorical rights\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMultiple accounts from the Qing Dynasty [1644-1911] and Western literature have recorded that the Galwan valley was China\u2019s territory. Based on the principle of \u2018historic rights,\u2019 China has jurisdiction over the valley area,\u201d Zhang Yongpan, a research fellow of the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies at CASS, told the Global Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He referred to India\u2019s construction activity near the Shyok as reflecting an attempt \u201cto break into Chinese land\u201d. \u201cIn nearby Shyok river in west Galwan river, India built an airport, constructed bridges, roads and villages. For years, the country has been seeking to break into Chinese land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This followed a statement on Tuesday made by People\u2019s Liberation Army\u2019s (PLA) Western Theatre Command spokesman Colonel Zhang Shuili that \u201cChina always owns sovereignty over the Galwan valley region\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was said a day after Monday\u2019s clash in the area that claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian soldiers in the worst violence on the border since 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MEA: untenable claims<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reacting to the PLA statement, India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs described the claims as \u201cexaggerated and untenable\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LAC runs east of the Galwan-Shyok confluence, and Monday\u2019s clash was thought to have taken place in the area between the confluence and the LAC, on India\u2019s side of the line. While the LAC has never been demarcated and there are differing perceptions in at least a dozen spots along the LAC, this was not among them, according to officials, and had not seen incidents in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. Taylor Fravel, an expert on the Chinese military at MIT, told The Hindu <\/em>earlier, \u201cChinese maps that I have seen show almost all of the Galwan river as lying within the territory China claims in the area. The one discrepancy would be the western tip of the Galwan river as it meets the Shyok. Here, the last few kilometres of the Galwan river are often depicted as lying beyond China\u2019s border. How one defines the parameters of the valley itself might be different than the river, however.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is some ambiguity on where the extremities of the valley may be defined, recent statements from China suggest their claim now goes beyond the current LAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The immediate trigger for the tensions that erupted last month in the Galwan area is thought to be a bridge and some feeder roads built by India east of the confluence of the rivers, but on India\u2019s side of the LAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening of road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s moves may have been triggered by last year\u2019s opening of the vital Darbuk-Shyok-Daulet Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road, which runs parallel to the LAC providing key all-weather access to the post at Daulet Beg Oldie, one of the northernmost points in Ladakh, observers have said. China may also be seeking access to areas closer to the confluence, from where it could neutralise the strategically important DSDBO road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report on Friday said the recent clash \u201chas brought the past flashpoint Galwan valley into the spotlight.\u201d It stated, \u201cChinese experts stressed China owns sovereignty over the area, and warned them not to be blind to history and mislead the public.\u201d It added, \u201cWhether judging from China\u2019s historic rights to the land and the Line of Actual Control, established to create a demarcation line and to ease tensions between the nations after the 1962 war, there is no dispute over the valley\u2019s sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Zhang of CASS said the valley, which was also a flashpoint in 1962, was of \u201cstrategic importance for both India and China.\u201d \u201cMaybe India thinks it could provide abundant water resources and is an important channel connecting China and South Asia,\u201d he said. \u201cIndia\u2019s actions in the region also suggest that it intends to strengthen its control over Ladakh and Kashmir. India\u2019s actions proved that it wants to enhance strength against Pakistan and China, and gain favourable geographical advantages\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With inputs from The Hindu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is being seen as an expansion of its previously known territorial claims in the area. China\u2019s claims to the entire Galwan valley in Ladakh, attributed on Friday by a Chinese strategic expert to \u201chistorical rights\u201d going back to the Qing Dynasty, are being seen as an expansion of previously known Beijing\u2019s territorial claims in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}