China’s road in Doka La is headed for Thimphu: 

China’s road in Doka La is headed for Thimphu: 

(India – China historical complications) Context

• China upset with India and keeping an eye on Bhutan.

Chronological events

• To understand the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction dispute, one needs to be acquainted with the historical facts.
• The Anglo-Chinese convention of 1890 poses that Sikkim-Tibet boundary “line commences at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier”.
• In 1959, at least two letters from Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Chinese premier Zhou Enlai refer to this convention was the final word on the Sikkim-Tibet boundary.
• India was on board with Mount Gipmoch, the tri-junction point according to China, being the tri-junction point in 1959.
• In 2012, New Delhi and Beijing had come to a separate agreement that any tri-junction involving a third country would be established by involving the third country in consideration.
• Since Bhutan was not party to the 1890 convention, the Sikkim-Tibet-Bhutan tri-junction remained unsettled.
• Independently, Beijing and Thimphu arrived at two separate agreements in 1988 and 1998, where both the sides have agreed to maintain the status quo that existed prior to March 1959.
• Then, noticeably, China’s persistence on building roads in Doka La, between Mount Gipmochi in the south and Batang La, the tri-junction point is a violation of three separate agreements it had previously entered into.

Why are Chinese sounding upset with violating the agreements?

• The Chinese side has stiffened its pose on the disagreement and claimed that there can be no dialogue on the matter unless India withdraws its troops unconditionally from Doka La.
• The Chinese state-controlled Global Times spitefully articulated the incidents and the aggressiveness.
• Global Times threatened that New Delhi will have to pay for its provocations.

Reasons for China to feel upset

• It is implicit that the Chinese have maintained some presence in roads and dirt tracks existing between Batang La and Doka La for more than a decade.
• Chinese construction activity has faced little opposition so far and therefore the current stand-off has taken Beijing by surprise.
• The Chinese foreign ministry has claimed that prior to 1960; Bhutanese herders in the region had to pay “grass tax” to China.
• The Tibet records, the Chinese claim will still retains some receipts from those years.
• Bhutan on its own, the Chinese believe, would have surrendered this area to China long ago.
• Beijing would not be completely wrong in concluding that Thimphu’s extended claim was the result of New Delhi’s prodding.
• The Chinese could have deemed this Indian action to be in bad faith especially because New Delhi had already signed off on the 1890 Anglo-Chinese convention way back in 1959.
• It is the Indian forces halting the Chinese road construction in a territory which New Delhi agrees are not Indian in any case even if it is disputed between Bhutan and China.
• India deems that area to be of high strategic importance because any further road construction will allow Chinese troops to come nearer to the Siliguri corridor, a sliver of land that connects India’s northeastern states to the rest of the country.
• Beijing’s intention was noticeably to change the status quo on the border so as to gain an unquestionable edge in subsequent boundary negotiations.

The impacts of Indo-Bhutanese Treaty 1949

• The Indo-Bhutanese treaty of 1949 allowed India to have a say in Bhutan’s external engagements.
• New Delhi claimed that India would, in effect, determine Bhutanese foreign policy while Thimphu claimed that India simply had an advisory role.
• Under the 1949 treaty, New Delhi believed it had the right to discuss the China-Bhutan boundary dispute on behalf of Thimphu.
• China on the other hand wanted to discuss the issue only with Bhutan.
• In May this year, Bhutan was the only south Asian country, other than India, that did not participate in the inaugural Chinese Belt and Road foruma high-profile initiative of the Chinese President Xi Jinping.
• A month later, the Chinese forces began to construct a road in Doka La.