China's obsession with Arunachal Pradesh smacks of a pattern of bullying on India's eastern frontier

China’s unjustified claims over Arunachal Pradesh has become a verbal bullying strategy against India’s sovereign space in the Eastern Himalayan border. It expresses a routine objection to any high-profile visits from the Central government to Arunachal Pradesh. This obsession has become a pattern, and the pattern persists.

Objections to Dalai Lama, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former defence minister AK Antony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and so on constitute a consistency. The politics behind this consistency is to de-normalise the geopolitics in the region. Beijing’s game is ingrained in keeping the boundary issue alive. Keeping this tension brewing gives it geopolitical relevance. Normalising the region de-accelerates its importance.

Its attempted skirmishes along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) indicate its ulterior motive. Beijing’s expansionist propensities require no deep study to understand. Its hegemonic narrative is out in the open. Rebutting such illogical claims, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India said, “We have noted the comments made by the spokesperson of the Chinese Defence Ministry advancing absurd claims over the territory of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Repeating baseless arguments in this regard does not lend such claims any validity. Arunachal Pradesh was, is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India. Its people will continue to benefit from our development programmes and infrastructure projects.”

More from Opinion

Sergio Gor’s senate hearing signals the future of Indo-American ties How Trump’s ‘War on Drugs’ buildup against Venezuela has a hidden agenda

Given this historicity, China’s recent objection to Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh and his inauguration of the Sela Tunnel, located at the height of 13,000 ft, hardly surprises anyone. The usual exchange of words and remarks continues, and everything goes as usual. But, this time, given this routine practice of China, the US has refuted Beijing’s claim and expressed its objections to the latter’s unilateral claims. The US has also accepted Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India.  This shift in the geopolitical gear takes the region’s discourse to a different height. However, what rattles China the most is the strategic importance of the all-weather Sela Tunnel. In the event of any critical border engagement between the two competing neighbours, the Sela Tunnel gives India the ease and advantage to present an effective combat. It also provides the soldiers with psychological relief and frees them from climatic restraints and unnecessary stockpiling in anticipation of winter and probable blockage.

Apart from its geostrategic importance, the connectivity aspect of the tunnel is equally vital. The winter connectivity to Tawang through Sela Pass is complex. The narrow roads, which were in probable danger of blockage due to heavy snowfall in winter, had cursory connectivity. The fully functional Sela Pass ensures India’s ease of connectivity in the region and geostrategic importance. This unsettles China and sees India as an effective competitor in the neighbourhood, which makes necessary preparations to fight the geopolitical heat generated by China in the eastern Himalayas.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

How army remains Pakistan’s biggest business house

60 years on, why 1965 India–Pakistan war still matters

The Sela Tunnel also opens up opportunities for industry, tourism, etc., and more economic participation. This shift in India’s geopolitical imagination to strengthen its border space, especially along the LAC, builds Bharat’s geopolitical and geostrategic depth in the eastern Himalayas. On top of it, the work-in-progress Frontier Highway will add an extra layer of defence to the entire border space of Arunachal Pradesh from Bhutan to Myanmar. This capacity-building exercise prepares India to emerge as a credible balancing player in the region, which will restrict China’s monopoly. Beijing’s interventions in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) have been questioned by New Delhi, but the former has not restrained itself despite objections from the latter. The corridor it has constructed through Gilgit-Baltistan is illegal and legitimately belongs to India. China gives no heed to India’s repeated cautions. But in the context of Arunachal Pradesh, it keeps its barrage of responses ready. This typifies a bully and hegemony. For China, it is a stock tactic. It uses them as and when necessary, without assessing their validity and fictionality. This monopoly and brinkmanship ought to be responded to effectively. Therefore, India has moved in the right direction by developing its infrastructural strength along the border areas and the hinterland. This censures China and increases its eyesore. The recent supply of more troops to the LAC also concerns the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), enhancing India’s combat readiness if any such conditions emerge in the region.

The test of the made-in-India Agni-5 missile with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) technology under Project Divyastra (Divine Weapon) re-orbits India’s position as a player of distinction in the global perception. Therefore, India’s increasing deterrence capabilities and infrastructural strength rattle Chinese leadership deeply, and the recent reactions reveal its frustrations. Beijing never intended to see India rise beyond the threshold of limited power. The faster growth rate, democracy, and young population make a compelling case for India’s surer rise as a bankable global player. In international relationships, India has proven its standard as an impactful player. Be it Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Arogya Setu, or free supplies of COVID-19 vaccines to the countries that needed them the most, India has established its leadership role and its ability as a bankable partner. Its diaspora spreading across the globe does everything in its capacity to enhance India’s bilateral and multilateral synergies.

In the immediate neighbourhood, the recent visit by Prime Minister Modi to Bhutan has been impressive, and the confidence both the Himalayan neighbours exude, as well as their enduring partnership and dependencies, are indications of a stronger South Asia. Sri Lanka gradually decouples from China’s sphere of influence after its more profound economic crisis. It has shown a significant tilt towards India in the event of the latter’s genuine support in recovering from its awful economic condition. Nepal has also realised the Chinese brinkmanship and its debt trap modalities. It has therefore decided to develop a secure and significant relationship with India. The economic and political conditions of Pakistan are pretty dire, and Afghanistan, in the aftermath of the abrupt American exit, is grappling with its own socio-political and cultural issues.

The recent India-Maldives differences are perceived to be the Chinese handiwork. Beijing spreads its sphere of influence on India’s west coast through Maldives. As a preparatory to such challenges, the Indian Navy has commissioned INS Jatayu on Minicoy Island in India’s Lakshadweep archipelago to tackle any maritime threat or eventuality. All these developments signify India’s growing importance in all areas of activity. This troubles Beijing in a significant way. The area where it can express its frustration remains essentially Arunachal Pradesh. Here, Beijing resorts to some anachronism or fiction without the weight of historicity to generate some synthetic geopolitical gravitas.

Beijing’s increasing isolationism globally in the post-COVID-19 pandemic and its economic crisis, global loss of credibility in the event of data secrecy regarding COVID-19 pandemic, Hong Kong fiasco, Tibet, Taiwan, Philippines, debt trap in Africa, other places, etc., develop frustrations in China for securing global suspicion. These frustrations are amplified by India’s growth in the neighbourhood and its impact on the international geopolitical and geostrategic space. Therefore, its reactions in the context of Arunachal Pradesh show its contradiction, isolation and helplessness.

Jajati K Pattnaik is an Associate Professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Chandan K Panda is an Assistant Professor at Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.