US Defence Report Mentions Chinese Village In Arunachal.
New Delhi:
The annual United States Department of Defence report on military developments involving China details the US perception of the tension along the Line of Actual Control or LAC, and also refers to the creation of a 100-home Chinese village in Arunachal Pradesh. The report has been submitted to the US Congress.
Details of the presence of this new Chinese village which lies squarely within Indian territory, south of the McMahon line, was first reported by NDTV in January based on high-resolution satellite imagery of the area.
In a chapter on the China-India border standoff, the US Department of Defence says, “Sometime in 2020, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between the PRC’s Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh state in the eastern sector of the LAC.”
The report says, “These and other infrastructure development efforts along the India-China have been a source of consternation in the Indian government and media.”
The village in question is located on the banks of the River Tsari Chu, and lies in the Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, an area which has seen clashes between India and Chinese soldiers even before the 1962 war.
While China has maintained a small military outpost in the area for more than a decade, the situation changed drastically in 2020, when it constructed a full-fledged village and stepped-up road construction activity inside Indian territory in the region.
The US Department of Defence report says, “Despite the ongoing diplomatic and military dialogues to reduce border tensions, the PRC has continued taking incremental and tactical actions to press its claims at the LAC.”
Last month, the Eastern Army Command Chief, Lieutenant General Manoj Pande, told reporters visiting Arunachal Pradesh that China continues to construct “dual-use” border villages which can also be used to position soldiers.
