Why the Sino–Indian Border Dispute is Still Unresolved after 50 Years: A Recapitulation

Abstract

In its dying days the British Empire in India launched an aggressive annexation of what it recognised to be legally Chinese territory. The government of independent India inherited that border dispute and intensified it, completing the annexation and ignoring China’s protests. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government, acquiescing in the loss of territory, offered diplomatic legalisation of the new boundary India had imposed in its North-East but the Nehru government refused to negotiate. It then developed and advanced a claim to Chinese territory in the north-west, again refusing to submit the claim to negotiation. Persistent Indian attempts to implement its territorial claims by armed force led to the 1962 border war. The Indian defeat did not lead to any change of policy; both the claims and the refusal to negotiate were maintained. The dead-locked Sino–Indian dispute and armed confrontation are thus the consequence of Indian expansionism and intransigence.

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