China-India border dispute explained

In June 2020, the most serious confrontation between Chinese and Indian military forces since almost 60 years occurred at the Galwan River valley, right at the disputed border region, leaving several soldiers dead on both sides. This was a striking reminder that one of of the oldest ongoing territorial disputes is far from being solved, and since then concerns about a potential escalation of the issue have increased significantly.

While this Himalayan conflict between China and India can be observed regularly in the news, it is rare to be provided an actual explanation of what the whole issue is really about. In this video, we are taking a look at all the disputed territories, from Aksai Chin, over to Sikkim and finally to Arunachal Pradesh, or how China calls it, South Tibet. We explore the historic background of the conflict, its development in the 20th and 21st century and also look at some of the reasons why these territories matter so much to the two states.
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Music:

Sarabande (by Joel Cummins)
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Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction
0:39 Line of Actual Control
1:36 Aksai Chin & nearby areas
4:57 Sikkim & surrounding areas
7:13 Arunachal Pradesh
11:23 Measures for de-escalation
12:17 China's interests in the conflict
13:40 India's interests in the conflict
14:44 Shared problems
15:52 Outro
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Sources:

van Eekelen, Willem Frederik (1967) Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China. Springer.

Bajpai, Kanti; Ho, Selina; Miller, Manjari Chatterjee (2020) Routledge Handbook of China–India Relations. Routledge

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#india #china #chinaindia

[alexlazar]

How to cause the chaos in the world for centuries to come?
Just let the British draw the borders...

[advakart]

take a shot every time british decolonization results in a border conflict among natives

[pentakadi]

I'm an indian..I wouldn't say it's completely accurate..But it's definitely unbiased and more accurate than any other video I have seen so far..

[wlf]

"If two fish fight in the same pond, there has been an englishman"

[justaboy]

If two fish are fighting in a river a british man must have pass by it.

[harishsubramanian]

High quality research from a foreigner is something I didn't expect!

[kranggaming]

I think the British missed their geography classes during school.

[kushagra]

One interesting fact that I learned while studying about India's dispute with China, is that the McMohan line was drawn by Henry McMohan while mapping out the border, was drawn by a rather thick red pen, which led to confusion about what the actual demarcation line was, resulting in China being able to assert it's claim over Arunachal Pradesh over the ambiguity over the demarcation amongst other reasons. A literal thick red pen used by a Britisher has led to billions of dollars of military expenditure by both the sides.

[harutosunaa]

The British did this intentionally to encourage a conflict between their most-likely enemies.

[mKay]

in conclusion, colonial era British Empire is the source of many border conflicts and internal conflicts of many nations in modern era

[Gigastorz]

Short answer: British came and drawn a line, india says yes, china says no.

[Suffer-grow]

You didn’t mention Chinese Premier Zhou EnLai
visited India 4 times from 1954 to 1960 to talk about Border issues with Nehru. And Nehru claimed China and India do not have border disputes and lied they didn’t help Dalai Lama

[nisargvaghela]

If two countries are fighting with each other, then the British might've drawn some line a few decades ago.

[kevintang]

"prohibits the use of firearm"
That's why the conflict was fought with sticks and rocks, just like ww4.

[dhyanastha]

Well with this logic, chola empire, ashoka and many others had empires stretching from Afghanistan to Indonesia. But thats a history. I would be stupidity to start capturing them back into India. This will spark a world War.

[karlvan]

Britain took advantage of China's civil war to help draw the line between China and India, but China has never acknowledged it. After India's independence, it believed that it inherited the heritage of the British colonists, but China still did not recognize the boundary line. In 1962, with the support of the United States and the Soviet Union, the Indian army marched deep into Tibet, which was Nehru's forward policy. As a result, a war broke out between China and India in the border areas. After China defeated India, it took the initiative to declare a cease-fire and withdraw its troops to 20 kilometers north of the actual line of control, thus separating the two sides from contact. After that, China returned more than 4000 Indian prisoners of war and weapons seized from the Indian army. The reason why China won in the war but did not occupy the disputed areas is not because of the pressure from the United States. We all know that China had dealt with 16 countries headed by the United States as early as in the Korean War, and also with the United States in the Vietnam War. Then, why did China choose to withdraw its troops northward instead of occupying the disputed areas? The real reason is that the Chinese leaders at that time still wanted to solve the problem through peaceful negotiations. Only in this way can disputes be resolved permanently. If land is obtained through war, the two countries will never be able to resolve their hatred. Another reason is that both China and India suffered from aggression and colonization before independence. China hopes to maintain friendship with the third world countries and jointly confront the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.

[robinchettri]

Europeans drawing borders in Europe : "This mountain/river will make a good boundary"

European colonizers drawing borders in Africa and North America : *draws a straight line throughout the continent*

[codingcat]

It's more likely that the British intentionally creates disputes so that the victims of its colonization will not unite against them. Offshore Balancing is a political tactic used frequently by the British Empire such that its subjects of colonization often disagree and fight with each other rather than fighting the suppression of their overlord. A similar border dispute is between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is also created by, well, the British.

[CrimsonGuard]

"All the world's problems we face today can be traced back to an Englishman drawing a line on a map"
- unknown

[superhandsome]

Soviet Union: we can't stand back any more, because behind us is Moscow. China: we can't go any further because New Delhi is ahead