Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China
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Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China <UN> Nijhoff Classics in International Law VOLUME 5 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ncla <UN> Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China A New Look at Asian Relationships By Willem van Eekelen LEIDEN | BOSTON <UN> Cover illustration: Collection British Library, Peraldus, Theological miscellany, including the Summa de vitiis, ‘An elephant and a dragon’, 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 13th century This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 2214-2436 isbn 978-90-04-30429-1 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-30431-4 (e-book) Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. <UN> Contents Abbreviations IX Maps X 1 The northern frontier of India x 2 Aksai Chin in the Western Sector xi 3 The Western Sector (Ladakh) xii 4 The Eastern Sector (McMahon Line) xIii Introduction XIv 1 The Policy of Non-Alignment 1 2 Sino-Indian Relations Prior to 1954 8 Tibet 8 Britain Firms Up the Border Control in nefa 14 Suzerainty 16 Tortuous Negotiations at Simla 19 The McMahon Line 32 Indian Nationalism and China 35 Independent India 38 Communism in India 40 China Occupies Tibet 43 The Search for a New Relationship 49 3 Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence 53 4 Panchsheel and Afro-Asian Cooperation 65 The Bandung Conference 70 5 India’s Position in International Conflict 79 Junagadh and Hyderabad 79 Kashmir 80 Korea 82 Suez and Hungary 85 Goa 87 Conclusions 91 <UN> vi Contents 6 The Border Dispute with China 94 China Probes the Boundary 94 Revolt in Tibet 98 Reactions in Parliament 99 Diplomatic Notes 105 Challenge to the Entire Border 106 Serious Incidents 108 The Premiers Meet (April 1960) 112 The Officials Report 115 Chinese acquiescence? 119 China’s Agreement with Burma 121 Deadlock 122 Expiration of the 1954 Agreement 124 Further Proposals 125 The Fighting Starts 128 The Colombo Proposals 133 The Question of Prisoners 141 China’s Agreements with Other Neighbours 142 Nepal 142 Pakistan 143 Afghanistan, Outer Mongolia and Bhutan 145 7 Legal Aspects of the Border Dispute 149 The Legal Status of Tibet 150 The Simla Convention of 1914 155 The McMahon Line 155 Mountain Boundaries 157 The Watershed Principle 158 Maps and Boundary Disputes 160 Effective Occupation 164 Prescription 166 Protest, Acquiescence and Estoppel 167 The Critical Date 168 Further Application to the Border Dispute 169 The Western Sector 171 The Border with Sinkiang 171 Ladakh’s Border with Tibet 176 The Eastern Sector 177 The Thagla Ridge 179 <UN> Contents vii 8 Political Motives in the Border Dispute 181 China Changes her Evaluation of India 181 Marxist Ideology 184 The Soviet Union and the Border Dispute 189 The Communist Party of India 192 Indian Assessment of China’s Motives 195 Conclusions 197 9 Conclusions (1964) 203 The Boundary Question 203 The Implications of the Border Dispute 207 Panchsheel 210 Prospects, a 1964 Assessment 214 10 Three Post Mortems…and More 218 The Addis Paper 219 The Forward Policy 221 The Henderson Brooks / Bhagat Report 224 The Prasad Report 229 A cia Report 231 Conclusion 232 11 Sino – Indian Relations after the War of 1962 234 War with Pakistan – Tension on Sikkim Border 235 Serious Clashes 238 Sumdorong Chu 244 A New Beginning? 246 12 The Wider Context 264 A Shift to the Sea 269 The Rise of China 274 China’s Coming-out Party 279 Political Change in India 280 Appendix 1: A Further Note on Tibet 285 Appendix 2: Contacts between Dharamsala and Beijing 303 Bibliography (1964) 315 Bibliography (2015) 328 Index 333 <UN> Abbreviations a.j.i.l. The American Journal of International Law b.y.i.l. The British Yearbook of International Law g.a.o.r. u.n. General Assembly, Official Records i.c.j. International Court of Justice i.c.l.q. The International and Comparative Law Quarterly i.i.s.s. International Institute of Strategic Studies i.y.i.a. The Indian Yearbook of International Affairs jwg Joint Working Group, India – China MoU Memorandum of Understanding pla People’s Liberation Army p.c.i.j. Permanent Court of International Justice r.c.a.j. Journal of the Royal Central Asia Society r.g.d.i.p. Revue Generale de Droit International Public y.b.w.a. The Yearbook of World Affairs Indian report / Chinese report Ministry of External Affairs (m.e.a.), New Delhi, Report of the officials of the governments of India and the People’s Republic of China on the boundary question. (The Indian and Chinese reports are numbered sepa- rately. The Chinese Report was issued as a Press Release from the Chinese Chargé d’Affaires in London) White Paper Ministry of External Affairs, notes, memoranda and letters exchanged between the Governments of India and China (A series of ten white papers) <UN> Maps kashgar U.S.S.A Sinkiang Kabul Shahidullah Ladakh Srinagar Chinghai Leh PAKISTAN Gartok Shipki La TIBET Barahoti Chamdo Delhi Lhasa NEPAL Gyantse S. NEFA BHUTAN Tezpur EAST PAK. Calcutta 0 200 400 600 Km. Map 1 The northern frontier of India <UN> MAPS xi 78° 80° Kuenlun range 36° SINKIANG AKSAI CHIN Karakoram Kizil Pass Jilga Lokzhung range 35° LINGZI TANG Lanak La Chinese Kongka road La British proposal of 1899 34° TIBET 02550 75 Km. Map 2 Aksai Chin in the Western Sector <UN> xii MAPS SINKIANG Yaratagh Haji Pass Karakoram Karakash Langar Pass AKSAI CHIN Daulat Beg Oldi Chip Chap Kizil Jilga Amtagar Lake LINGZI TANG Galwan Lanak Shyak S i La n Kongka La k i Changchenma a n g - Leh T i Hot Spring b e t R TIBET o Pangong a Lake d Indus Chushul Spanggur Lake Rudok Indian claim line Chinese claim 1960 Chinese positions on Sept. 7, 1962 and approx. Claim of 1956 Demchok Tashigong 02550 75 Km. Map 3 The Western Sector (Ladakh) <UN> MAPS Map 4 94° 96° McMahon Lone TIBET The Eastern Sect The Eastern Other international frontiers o Tsangp Chinese claim line Tamadan Mishmis or (McMahon Line) or (McMahon Migritum Abors Rivers Rima Longju Diphu Dihang Walong pass 28° Tsona Subansiri Miris Dzong Lohit Thagla Khinzemane Tawang Sela ASSAM BHUTAN Bomdila BURMA Tezpur Udalguri Brahmaputra 050 100 xiii Km. <UN> Introduction The idea for a study of Indian foreign policy originated during a diplomatic posting to New Delhi between 1957 and 1960. These years were marked by the eruption of the Tibetan revolt, the flight of the Dalai Lama and the first inci- dents along the Sino-Indian border. My departure coincided precisely with the landing of the aircraft carrying Premier Chou En-lai to a lengthy meeting with Prime Minister Nehru in a vain attempt to arrive at a negotiated solution. The conflict subsequently assumed proportions affecting the overall foreign policy of India. It provided the most severe testing ground for Panchsheel, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which India advocated as a new and Asian contribution to international relations. My next posting was in London, which coincided with the short war of 1962 and where I could con- sult the India Office Library which contains most documents relevant to the colonial period. Originally my purpose was to trace the Five Principles from their optimistic start in an atmosphere of friendship with China to their decline as an instru- ment of practical politics. As Panchsheel experienced both its rise and fall in the bilateral context of Sino-Indian relations, these were examined in consid- erable detail. Most emphasis was put on the border dispute which represented the first conflict between a communist power and a non-aligned state. The analysis of legal aspects and political motives in the dispute was preceded by a lengthy chronological description, which seemed necessary not only to com- plete the accounts given in other and often biased publications, but also as an illustration of both its climactic development and the gradual increase of Chinese pressure. When I defended my doctoral thesis at the University of Utrecht in 1964 the records of the Simla conference of 1914 were not yet available to the public. Soon thereafter the ‘fifty year rule’ for access to official records was relaxed to a thirty year rule, which enabled me to publish a second edition in 1967 incorpo- rating important information. I also made use of Alastair Lamb’s interesting study on the McMahon line. Comments by mr Hugh Richardson enabled me to clarify events in Tibet during the period 1935–37. In 1965 an undeclared war raged between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, complicated by a Chinese ultimatum to India. The relations between the two countries have never been easy, but gradually were overtaken by the percep- tion of a larger Chinese threat. At the same time disintegrating tendencies in the non-aligned and Afro-Asian camps took away the shine of the Nehru period.