India protests after China announces new counties in Aksai Chin region

India on Friday (January 3) rejected China’s creation of two new counties in the illegally occupied Aksai Chin region and registered its protest.

Last week, China announced two new counties in the Xinjiang province that borders India — the same province where China has forcibly detained millions of native Uighurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic minority in China, in internment camps where the United Nations (UN) has indicted China of crimes against humanity.

These two counties, He’an County and Hekang County in the Hotan prefecture, cover parts of Aksai China, the part of Ladakh union territory that has been illegally occupied by China since 1950s.

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At a regular press conference, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal rejected the creation of these two counties and said that as India has never accepted China’s illegal occupation of Indian territories, it does not accept the creation of these two counties as well.

Jaiswal said, “Parts of the jurisdiction of these so-called counties fall in India’s Union Territory of Ladakh. We have never accepted the illegal Chinese occupation of Indian territory in this area. The creation of new counties will neither have a bearing on India’s long-standing and consistent position regarding our sovereignty over the area nor lend legitimacy to China’s illegal and forcible occupation of the same.”

Jaiswal further said that India has registered a “solemn protest” with China through diplomatic channels in the matter.

Last month, China’s Xinjiang province, with the approval of Beijing, created two new counties, He’an and Hekang, within the Hotan prefecture with their seats at Hongliu Township and Xeyidula Township, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.

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The creation of these two counties is the latest act of ‘cartographic aggression’ by China. Notably, the move comes at a time when India and China are working to mend the ties worsened by Chinese incursions in 2020 that triggered a military stand-off in Ladakh that has not yet been fully resolved. The Chinese actions in 2020, including the clashes Chinese actions triggered in Galwan Valley that killed 20 Indian soldiers, plunged the bilateral relationship to its worst since 1962 when China’s invaded India in an act of unprovoked war.