Let's start with the basics first- You might know that the border between Pakistan occupied Kashmir and India is called LOC- Line of Control But the border between Chinese occupied Ladakh and India is called LAC- Line of Actual Control You can take a look at the map- LAC is the line between Aksai Chin and India And LOC is the line between PoK and India Now, there are some critical differences between LOC and LAC LOC is very clearly defined Both Pakistan and India are aware of where the boundary line actually is But the LAC line is not clearly defined In English, there is a word for it- Demarcated So LOC is demarcated while LAC is not That is, it's not clearly defined Both China and India claim that the LAC is in different places Both the countries have different perceptions about where the LAC actually lies And due to the different claims by both the countries, there is an overlapping territory between them as you can see in this diagram It is a wonderful diagram made in one of the articles of NewsLaundry The Indian territory is represented by blue the undisputed territory, which even the Chinese concede is Indian and the undisputed Chinese territory is marked in red The Indian claim line is the blue dotted line and the Chinese claim line is the red dotted line These are the lines that China and India claim to be their borders The area that lies in between becomes the Grey Area Grey Area is referred to as Area of Differing Perception- ADPA In reality, this grey area isn't a large area Talking about the Pangong lake in Ladakh, then the Grey area there covers only about 10 kilometres in length and no one resides there Before the development of this situation, there weren't any posts of the Indian army or the Chinese army Both the Indian and the Chinese army merely patrolled that area And this iswhy there were clashes and conflicts between both the armies when they came patrolling which you might have even heard about- these clashes would recur between the two armies every 2-3 years and they happened because of these grey areas One army came patrolling whilst the other was already patrolling Then one army would write on banners to tell the other that they were trespassing upon their territory and would request them to go back
Ever since the Indian army has upgraded its equipment and improved its infrastructure over the past years, the Indian Army increased the frequency of its patrols This is the reason why the conflicts and confrontations with the Chinese army have also increased Whenever this happens, the media on both sides report of an Intrusion of the Indian/Chinese army on their soil Things like these keep on recurring. But the situation today is more serious that these regular and minor skirmishes It is believed that the conflict ongoing today started on 5th May and it was reported for the first time on 12th May by the Economic Times This entire situation is happening in Pangong Lake- which is a lake in Ladakh If you remember the 3 idiots movie- the end scene of the movie was shot in this lake It is a very long lake- around 130 kilometres in length and its breadth is around 5 kilometres The scene in the movie 3 idiots was shot on the westernmost part of the lake But around 60% of the area of this lake falls within Chinese occupied territory and the Line of Actual Control passes through this lake If you take a look at the map, there are pointed edges protruding in the norther side of the Pangong Lake The shape of the lake is somewhat like this These pointed edges are called "fingers" of the lake Starting from the left/West side, these fingers have been named Finger 1, Finger 2, Finger 3 and so on India claims that the LAC lies in the Finger 8 area China claims that the LAC lies in the Finger 2 area The Grey Zone that we talked about earlier lies in between Finger 2 and Finger 8 on the map Talking about the ongoing problem, it was said on 4th-5th May that Chinese troops had reached till Finger 5 while patrolling and this led to a conflict Talking about the second conflict, it was reported that between 10th and 11th of May the Chinese troops reached Finger 4 while patrolling and this led to stone pelting A fist fight broke out between Indian and Chinese troops in which 11 people got injured But the talks about tensions and Chinese intrusions today is not just about one place But three different places
The first area is Pangong Lake that I told you about The second area is Galwan River Valley in Ladakh And the third area is Hot Springs near Kongka Pass Let us first start with the Pangong Lake I had a talk with Retired Colonel Ajay Shukla Ji in order to find out what his sources have to say about the extent to which Chinese intrusion has taken place in the Pangong Lake -As per your sources, how far do you think China has occupied territory in the three areas of conflict? First, let us talk about the Pangong Lake -The spurs that move downwards towards the Pangong Lake from the mountains They have been numbered. The Number 1 is on the western most side on the left and lies on the side of India and then number 2, 3, 4... until number 8 Number 8 is on the eastern most side- on the side of China The land between Finger 4 to Finger 8 had remained unoccupied until now and there had been no troops there There were only patrols by both the sides Right now, China has physically occupied it and have stationed themselves there They have brought in arms and are preparing trenches and their stations and have occupied that area completely -How many soldiers have occupied that area? - I beg your pardon -How many soldiers have occupied that area between Finger 4 and Finger 8? -There are around 4,000-5,000 Chinese soldiers in the area between Finger 4 and Finger 8 -Okay -And this is a distance of 4 kilometres This is the Indian territory that they have occupied For a different viewpoint I'd like to tell you the assessment of Retd LT. Genreal H S Panang regarding this Pangong Area He wrote his opinion on the Print Media website and the results according to his assessment were quite similar to what Ajay Shukla ji told us The area between Finger 4 and Finger 8 has been occupied by China which came under the "grey area", even though India's claim was up till finger 8 So China has moved into the area claimed by India and this, according to him is an area of about 35-40 square kilometres and China has stationed around 1-2 battalions here He also believes that the journalists that are "misinterpreting" these Fingers and are basically saying that it cannot be said that Chinese have occupied Indian territory
These journalists are basically playing into China's hands They are basically favoring China by denying that China has moved into the territory claimed by India -Talking about the other 2 areas- the Galwan valley and the Hot springs- what is the situation there? -Dhruv, the situation is the worst in Galwan. The area between Finger 4 and Finger 8 is a tiny area which does not dominate any area further and the occupation of which does not yield a lot of benefits to the Chinese soldiers on the military front But they are going to reap a huge benefit on the military front in Galwan By coming into the Galwan valley and stationing themselves on the Galwan heights, the 255km road that has been laid until Daulat Beg Oldi from Shyok and Darbuk which travels northward towards Daulat Beg Oldi The Chinese soldiers that have moved into the Galwan Valley are in a strategically beneficial position as they can overlook that road They can use artillery and cannons to fire on it And if they want to stop India from making use of this road, then they can easily do so Because the intrusion in Galwan is the most dangerous H S Panag ji has also pointed out in his article that the area of the Galwan river valley has been breached into by China and they have occupied around 2-3 kilometres of area at a height Around two Chinese battalions are present at a height, which is a huge disadvantage for India It becomes easier to attack lower terrain if one is situated at a height Another interesting thing pointed out by him is that the differing perceptions of the claims by India and China and the grey area in between, In the area of the Galwan river valley, no such grey area is present India and China do not have different perceptions in this area. There exists one single line So according to him, Chinese intrusion in this area is them actually encroaching upon Indian territory -And the differing perceptions regarding the claims of India and China is clear in the case of Pangong Lake Does something like that exist in the case of Galwan as well? -No. You've made a very important point here Galwan was an area where both the Indian and the Chinese soldiers did not get into conflicts The claim lines of both of them was approximately the same Chinese claim line in Ladakh was separate from Galwan So by coming in here, the Chinese soldiers have violated their own claim line -And (what about) the third region- the Hot springs region?
-As per our sources in the Indian Army, China is only pressing for the third region in order to divert the focus of the Indian soldiers and to disturb them But they will get no strategic benefit by encroaching here Neither have they captured much land, nor is there a military benefit as in the case of Galwan I'd like to tell you the viewpoints of some more retired army officers Lt. General Rameshwar Roy has said that we should not compare this situation with the earlier situations The situation today is far more grim Col Malkiat has said that this situation is basically like "Chinese Kargil" This situation is that critical KJS Arora said that this is a loss of national pride and it is extremely shameful how some politicians are trying to douse the situation by giving us the excuse of different perceptions and are not admitting that India has actually lost territory to the hands of China Our government has made no clear cut communication with its citizenry during this entire situation In an interview, Rajnath Singh ji said that Chinese have come into Indian territory in sizeable numbers When the video went viral, some people began to shared it as an admission by the Defense Minister So then PIB brought out a "fact check" and the government denied it, saying that Rajnath Singh meant something else and that he is being misinterpreted He merely meant that the Chinese troops have reached the LAC -So the BJP leadership of India is not able to take some stern steps but it does not want to show the public that it is adopting some other ways in front of China and this is why, they have maintained right from the start that China has done nothing at all
They say that China merely occupied a small portion of the disputed are for a while, after which they left The tune that Pakistan adopted during the surgical strikes and during the time of Balakot, that India said nothing. They're merely lying that they came Similarly, the BJP leadership is adopting the same approach against China right now That they never came China has trespassed into the Indian soil as of now -So India is doing the same thing with China, which Pakistan did with India back then -India is doing the same thing with China. This leadership, in a way, is forfeiting its own territory Some experts believe that not telling everything to the citizens is a good strategy by the government Otherwise, it would lead to a lot of pressure being mounted on the government from the opposition and the people to take action in one direction If the government does not divulge a lot of information to the people, then it would have more available options of how to address the situation Maybe they would want to let go off an area But if they let the public know, there is so much nationalist sentiment within the people today that they would they take the government to task It would then mount pressure upon the government to retaliate to China in the same manner that it adopts
for example, the surgical strike in Pakistan that we talk about but on the other hand some experts like Lt. Gen. H S Panag maintain that if the government is denying this information to the public, then it is basically playing into the hands of China What do you think here? Is the government's decision to give out no clear cut information to the public a correct one? Write down your opinions in the comments below A question here is why is China making such intrusions in India? There are many different theories for this by different experts Some say that China is inculcating nationalist sentiments within its own country in order to divert the attention of the people from the state of the economy which has crashed due to COVID 19 Others deny this and say that the reason is that China is threatened by the the road India is constructing and China wants the construction of the road to stop and India is denied the strategic advantage that it would otherwise get -What do you think are the reasons for the Chinese to behave like this? One reason is stated to be the DSDBO road China is doing this to stop the construction of this road -Impeding the road construction is an instrument,an advantage, a military tool that they have got But why they want to stop the construction of the road is extremely important In my opinion and according to many experts, when India changed the status of Kashmir on 5th Aug last year and changed the status of Ladakh as well When it was made into a union territory by India from being a portion of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and when it was said that Aksai Chin- which has been occupied by China is also a part of it,
This made China feel that India is unilaterally changing the status of this entire area And this was not at all liked by them And now they want to show that if you can change the status unilaterally, so can we -But will not doing this affect them geo-politically? As it is, a lot of countries in the world are against China at the moment regarding the Corona virus situation and due to other reasons as well. UK is also against it due to what's happening in Hong Kong So will it not backfire on China to be at loggerheads with all the countries? -China is basically trying to show that it is a global power And that they will resort to arbitrariness if they so wish to and they can do so on many fronts Gone are the days of fighting only on one front, of it not being able to fight with India if a fight with Vietnam is on Right now, China believes that it is the kind of super power that it can pursue Chinese interests on multiple fronts simultaneously So China is in a very arrogant mind-frame right now And India, which is a quite powerful and stable country, China is also trying to display that India cannot meddle with it and that they can take steps against India if they so wish to -So a final question- What do you think will be the solution of the talks that have been held? Or what solution has been chalked out, as per your sources? -TechShanky my sources say that China is still behaving boisterously and that it is not ready to take even a single step backwards
They maintain that the land that they have occupied is Chinese territory And that it has always been Chinese territory and it will always remain so I'd like to give you a small update that came in yesterday, while I was making this video Some of our media channels posted that the Chinese troops have retreated 2.5 kms from the Galwan Valley and that they have disengaged themselves ANI posted this and said that the source of this information came from "top government sources" So I asked Ajay Shukla ji on the phone about what his opinion regarding this was And he said that this claim was not correct according to him and if it does anything, it only proves that there was a Chinese intrusion -So, do you think there will be more talks in the coming future? and this situation is still stuck in the same place that it was before -Dhruv, you've raised a very interesting point. The talks that are ongoing are happening on many levels Our ambassador is in talks with the Chinese foreign Ministry in our embassy in Beijing A border mechanism has been prepared by both the sides to resolve any border disputed that arise Talks are also happening on the border mechanism front And finally, there is a military to military talk as well The government is attempting to keep the spotlight on the military to military talks so that they can foist the blame on the military later But there are talks ongoing on all three levels- diplomatic, military and political It is yet to be seen what progress will be made and on what level Chants of "boycott China/Chinese products/Chinese apps" have sparked up again during these tensions How can this be implemented and how successful can boycotting China from India be We will talk about this in next blog. Thank you
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