Facing Off on the Roof of the World

India-china

Nuclear-armed India and China are building up their military might on a disputed border in the eastern Himalayan mountains. Facing off on the roof of the world

TRUCK TREK: A truck carrying LPG tanks struggles up the muddy Tawang highway in India’s ArunachalPradesh state, which China claims as “South Tibet”. REUTERS/Frank Jack Daniel

By Frank Jack Daniel TAWANG, India, July 30, 2012

t has all the appearance of an arms race on the roof of the world. Asia’s two great powers are facing off here in the eastern Himalayan Imountains. China has vastly improved roads and is building or extend- ing airports on its side of the border in Tibet. It has placed nuclear-capable intermediate missiles in the area and deployed around 300,000 troops across the Tibetan plateau, according to a 2010 Pentagon report.

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HARD LABOUR: Using a few creaky bulldozers, and work gangs of local women to hammer boulders into gravel, India is trying to carve a modern highway into the forbidding himalayan terrain of Arunachal Pradesh. REUTERS/Frank Jack Daniel

India is in the midst of a 10-year plan to army chief, Gen. V.K. Singh, told Reuters scale up its side. In the state of Arunachal the day before he left office on May 31. “And Pradesh, new infantry patrols started on the 300,000 you say at some point, if the issue does not frontier in May, as part of a surge to add The number of troops China get settled, there could be some problem.” some 60,000 men to the 120,000 already in has deployed across the Tibetan Indian analysts and policymakers went the region. It has stationed two Sukhoi 30 Plateau. India is adding 60,000 further in their “Non-Alignment 2.0” report fighter squadrons and will deploy the Brah- troops to the 120,000 it already released this year. It argues India cannot “en- mos cruise missile. has in the region. tirely dismiss the possibility of a major mili- “If they can increase their military strength tary offensive in Arunachal Pradesh,” and there, then we can increase our military suggests New Delhi should prepare to fight strength in our own land,” Defence Minister an insurgency war if attacked. A.K. Anthony told parliament recently. India and China fought a brief frontier “We feel very clearly that we need to de- Reuters journalists on a rare journey war here in 1962, and Chinese maps still velop the border infrastructure, engage with through the state discovered, however, show all of Arunachal Pradesh within Chi- our border communities, do that entire de- that India is lagging well behind China in na’s borders. The continuing standoff will velopment and leave our options open on building infrastructure in the area. test whether these two Asian titans - each how to respond to any border incursion, in The main military supply route through with more than a billion people, blossom- case tensions ratchet up,” Rajiv Kumar, one sparsely populated Arunachal is largely dirt ing trade ties and ambitions as global pow- of the report’s authors, said in an interview. track. Along the roadside, work gangs of lo- ers - can rise peacefully together. With the Indian media frequently run warnings cal women chip boulders into gravel with United States courting India in its “pivot” of alleged Chinese plots, and both militar- hammers to repair the road, many with ba- to Asia, the stakes are all the higher. ies drill near the border. In March, while bies strapped to their backs. Together with China’s foreign minister was visiting Delhi, FIGHT AN INSURGENCY a few creaky bulldozers, this is the extent of the Indian air force and army held an ex- the army’s effort to carve a modern high- “With the kind of developments that are ercise dubbed “Destruction” in Arunachal’s way from the liquid hillside, one that would taking place in the Tibet Autonomous Re- mountains. Three weeks later, China said its carry troops and weaponry to the disputed gion, and infrastructure that is going up, it J-10 fighters dropped laser-guided bombs ceasefire line in any conflict with China. gives a certain capability to China,” India’s on the Tibetan plateau in high-altitude

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Disputed border Disputed territory No defined Aksai Chin Kashmir Adminstered by China Adminstered boundary by Pakistan CHINA

Kashmir Adminstered by India N

TA T ibet

AKIS Autonomous Region P

Chinese maps label this area as “South Tibet” Lhasa

New Delhi desh Sikkim Pra NEPAL Tawang al ch INDIA na ru BHUTAN A

100 km MYANMAR 100 miles BANGLADESH

Source: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),

ground-attack training. If they can increase their China threat is perceived to be strong. But Some policymakers play down the military strength there, then we any voices within the Chinese military that Arunachal face-off. Nuclear weapons on can increase our military strength advocate seizing the region are weak, he said. both sides would deter all-out war, and the in our own land. “China’s military could take the territory forbidding terrain makes even conventional by force, but maintaining the gains in the warfare difficult. A defence hotline and fre- A.K. Anthony long term would be exceptionally difficult,” quent meetings between top Chinese and Indian Defence Minister Hu said, noting the tough terrain. Indian officials, including regular gather- Yet with both nations undertaking mas- ings at the border, help ease the pressure. the border issue, will work together to pro- sive naval modernisations and brushing up Bilateral trade, which soared to $74 billion tect peace and calm in the border region, against each other’s interests across South in 2011 from a few billion dollars a decade and also believe that by jointly working Asia and in the South China Sea, the fes- ago, is also knitting ties. toward the same goal, negotiations on the tering dispute risks being the catalyst for a From China’s perspective, the border dis- border will yield results,” Liu said. violent flare-up, some security analysts say. pute with India doesn’t rank with Beijing’s Hu Shisheng, a Sino-India expert at For thousands of years, Chinese and In- other border or military concerns, such as the government-backed China Institutes dian empires were kept apart by the Hima- Taiwan. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokes- of Contemporary International Relations, layas. After years of fast economic growth, man Liu Weimin struck an optimistic tone. said the border dispute casts an oversized the rivals now have the resources to consol- “China and India are in consensus on shadow in the Indian media - where the idate and patrol their most distant regions.

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India is starting to feel fenced in by Chi- REUTERS TV See the video http://link.reuters.com/kej59s nese agreements with its neighbours that are not strictly military but could be lever- aged in a conflict. Indians sometimes refer to these as a “string of pearls,” which includes China’s force deployments in Tibet, access to a Myanmar naval base, and Chinese construc- tion of a deepwater port in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, and another in Gwadar, Pakistan. Some in the Chinese government worry that India is becoming part of a U.S. strate- gy to contain China. The United States has sold $8 billion in weapons to India, which is spending about $100 billion over 10 years to modernize its military. The two nations are unlikely to go to war, but have no choice but to add to their military strength on the border as they gain clout, a now the de facto frontier with China. It is smooth, hard-topped roads stretching to senior Indian official with direct experience of the only way in. Supplies are taken to even Tibet’s capital of Lhasa. Chinese border Sino-Indian relations told Reuters. remoter army posts by 50-mule caravans on posts, like India’s today, were once only “It is the currency of power,” he said. In three-day treks. reachable by horse or mule. Now they are the border negotiations, “we are ready to Along the tortuous road, soldiers can be connected by asphalt. compromise, but up to a point.” seen shooting at targets on a firing range. Beyond the frontier, the Chinese im- The road to Tawang, a centre of Tibet- Rows of ammunition sheds behind barbed provements include laying asphalt on a an Buddhism by the border, is one of In- wire dot the landscape on a chilly plateau historic highway across the region of Aksai dia’s most strategic military supply routes. shared with yaks. Chin, which is claimed by India. The con- Growling convoys of army trucks bring New fuel depots and small bases are struction of the Xinjiang-Tibet national troops, food and fuel through three Hima- springing up. In addition to deploying extra highway 50 years ago shocked India and layan passes on the 320-kilometer (199- troops, missiles and fighter jets in Arunachal, contributed to the 1962 war. mile) muddy coil to camps dotted along the India plans to buy heavy-lift choppers to China’s rails are improving, too: Beijing disputed border. carry light artillery to the mountains. opened a train line from Tibet to the region On a road trip in late May and early June, China rules restive Tibet with an iron in 2006, and an extension is planned into a Reuters found much of the 14,000-foot- hand, and tightly restricts visits by foreign prefecture bordering Arunachal. high road to be a treacherous rutted trail, media, making independent assessments of In a 2010 cable released by Wikileaks, a U.S. often blocked by landslides or snow, despite the military presence in the region hard. But diplomat concluded that infrastructure develop- years of promises to widen and resurface it. all signs indicate much more sophisticated in- ment in Lhoka prefecture, which according to At its start in the insurgent-hit tropical frastructure on the Chinese side of the border. China includes Tawang, was in part to prepare a plains of Assam state, the Tawang road is During the last government-organised “rear base” should a border clash arise. guarded by soldiers armed with Israeli rifles visit to Tibet, in 2010, a Reuters journalist For years, India deliberately neglected and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers saw half a dozen Su-27 fighters, some of infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh, partly who sweep for roadside bombs. Near the end the most advanced and lethal aircraft China so it could act as a natural buffer against any - a tough two-day drive - is the 300-year-old owns, operating from Lhasa’s Gonggar air- Chinese invasion. That policy was dropped white-walled Tawang monastery. port. China has been building or extending when the extent of development on China’s In the higher reaches, the army convoys airports across vast and remote Tibet, all of side became clear. struggle along rock-walled valleys to bases which have a dual military-civilian use. In 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan near the McMahon Line, the border agreed Meanwhile, residents on the Indian side Singh made his first trip to Arunachal and to by India and Tibet in a 1914 treaty and of the border report the Chinese have built promised $4 billion to build a 1,700-kilo-

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LAGGING BEHIND: India has been unable to match China’s massive infrastructure development on its side of the disputed frontier. REUTERS/Frank Jack Daniel

meter (1,055-mile) highway joining the ported in the last two years. fortress-like hilltop monastery in the 1962 valleys of the state as well as a train line Unable to match China’s transport net- war before withdrawing to the current lines. connecting to New Delhi. These would also work, India’s focus is now on maintaining In the 17th century, Tawang district was make troop movements easier. more troops close to the border. the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama. Around the same time, former army “India struggles to build up infrastruc- Deified as his latest incarnation, the cur- chief Gen. J.J. Singh was appointed gover- ture,” said Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie rent Dalai Lama visited the monastery in nor of the state and is ramping up infra- Endowment for International Peace, who 2009 and has hinted his next reincarnation structure, power and telecom projects. has written extensively on the India-China will be born in India. Some say in Tawang. “Never before in the history of this re- relationship. “They have been trying to do Tibetan Buddhists see the Dalai Lama gion has such a massive development pro- this for the past six or seven years now, and as a living god; China sees him as a separat- gramme been conducted here,” he said, sip- it is progressing far more slowly than they ist threat. Many in the Indian security com- ping tea at his residence. would like. What they have done in the in- munity worry that instability in Tibet after Singh, who spent much of his army ca- terim is build up the troop strength.” his death could endanger India. reer in Arunachal, saidIndia and China both One of main irritants in India-China re- So, New Delhi is wooing the locals. The realise “there is enough place and space for lations, and a key part of China’s claim to intermingling of the Indian army and the both of us to develop. A very mature and Arunachal, is Tibetan Buddhism. Beijing claims Tawang monks is striking. War memorials pragmatic approach is being taken by both.” a centuries-old sovereignty over Arunachal and on the road are built in the style of Tibetan But despite 15 rounds of high-level talks, the rest of the Himalayan region. Buddhist stupas, with prayer wheels and the border issue looks as knotty as ever. Indian India hosts the Dalai Lama and his Ti- flags. Soldiers frequently visit the temple, media often whip up anger at Chinese border betan government-in-exile. When the Dalai and advise the lamas about troop move- incursions, played down by both governments Lama fled Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959, ments and developments on the border. as a natural result of differing perceptions of his first stop was the Buddhist monastery Lobsang Thapke, a senior lama at the mon- where the border lies. India’s defence minister in the Arunachal town of Tawang near the astery, says India’s troop buildup has made the told parliament 500 incursions have been re- border. Three years later, China occupied the monks feel safe, but that India was far from

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matching China’s road-building prowess. But anger is rising about a lack of jobs “It’s a fear, because already China has “From our side, we have to go through a lot and perceptions that government corrup- annexed Tibet. We feel part of India, we of difficulty,” he said in a carpeted room above tion is rampant. Student movements have are used to India,” he said. the main hall, where child monks chanted organised strikes in the state capital. morning prayers. “They (India) have not black- Hotel worker Dorjee Leto says educated Edited by Bill Tarrant and Michael Williams topped. Gravelling has not been done.” young people like himself feel forgotten by India. There is almost no mobile phone FOR MORE INFORMATION ANGER AND ANXIETY coverage, power cuts that last days, and just Frank Jack Daniel The Indian footprint here isn’t always wel- that long muddy road to the outside world. [email protected] come. India’s new wealth is seen in the multi- Anxiety over China, however, out- Bill Tarrant, Enterprise Editor storey hotels mushrooming between tradi- weighs the irritation with India, says [email protected] tional wood-and-stone houses in town, and Leto, who like most in Tawang is a fol- Michael Williams, Global Enterprise Editor new Fords and Hyundais on the hilly streets. lower of Tibetan Buddhism. [email protected]

NEXT DALAI LAMA?: Child monks inside the 17th century Tawang Tibetan Buddhist monastery near the border, where some think the next Dali Lama will be found. REUTERS/Frank Jack Daniel

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