In an unprecedented move, China has constructed at least three villages in western Arunachal Pradesh, approximately 5kms from the Bum La pass which lies close to the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan. The new constructions are considered to be a significant step towards reinforcing China's territorial claims along the Arunachal frontier.
"China has been using a strategy of settling Han Chinese and Tibetan members of the Communist Party along the India border to strengthen its territorial claims and escalate border intrusions," says China-watcher Dr. Brahma Chellaney.
"Like it used fishermen in the South China Sea, China uses civilian resources – herders and grazers – as the tip of the spear to intrude into Indian-patrolled Himalayan areas," he added.
New satellite images were presented by NDTV, which was acquired from Planet Labs, show a single village having been constructed in the area by February 21, 2020. This features more than 20 structures, thought to be chalets, which can be easily distinguished through their red roofs. The second image, dated November 28, 2020, shows the addition of three additional enclaves with at least 50 structures. All the enclaves are connected with all-weathered roads.
The legal status of the boundary in this region is being heavily contested by China with Chinese maps showing 65,000kms of territory south of the line as being a part of Beijing's South Tibet region. India has rejected Beijing's claim for decades and insisted that the historic McMohan line proposed by the British administrator Sir Henry McMohan at the 1914 Simla Convention defines the boundary here.
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat in 2017 had warned of China's efforts to 'salami slice' into Indian territory.
"As far as [the] northern adversary is concerned, the flexing of muscle has started. The salami slicing, taking over territory in a very gradual manner, testing our limits of threshold is something we have to be wary about," he warned.
The general's allegation seem to be exactly what is happening across the Sino-Indian frontier – in Doklam in 2017, across eastern Ladakh this year and potentially near the tri-junction in western Arunachal Pradesh as the images provided by NDTV indicates.
Construction across the Bum La pass is exactly what the Chinese government mouth piece, Global Times, identified in a detailed report in August that looked at infrastructure construction in the Shannan Prefecture which borders Arunachal Pradesh.
"For residents who set up a home close to the border line, herding is patrolling and living is guarding the frontier," the report said.
The new villages are a stark contrast from the dwellings of villagers in the past with all basic amenities like water, electricity, and internet access available. Cona, a crucial border county in Shannan which shares a 213 kilometre boundary with India plans "to relocate 3,222 people of 960 families to the weakly controlled areas on the borders on a voluntary basis."
