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SCMP Reporters

Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a standoff in a desolate region of the Himalayas that is also claimed by India’s ally Bhutan.
As the protracted border row between the two Asian giants rumbles on, we take a look at some perspectives on the dispute.

1. When will China and India start talking about the 1962 war honestly?
Both countries have been peddling a simplistic narrative of the last war, each blaming the other. Debasish Roy Chowdhury asks: is it any surprise there’s so much loose talk of a new one?

2. After all that embracing, has US left India out in the cold over standoff with China?
The United States, India’s “natural ally”, has maintained a baffling silence on the Doklam dispute, writes Sumit Ganguly.

3. Why tiny Bhutan remains the wild card in China’s border stand-off with India
Ankit Panda writes that each choice Bhutan makes during the protracted China-India dispute could chart its place in Asia for decades to come.

4. Imagine what China and India can do together
The two Asian powers share a common cause on several fronts, from globalisation to climate change. Both would be wise to focus on cooperation instead of military brinkmanship, says Shashi Tharoor.

5. Doklam dispute shows India must pick its battles, as China seeks to be the centre of the world
Shyam Saran says that China’s Doklam stance aims to weaken the regional alliance between India and Bhutan.

6. Why is China so keen to alienate half a billion young Indians with no memories of the war?
Half of India’s population is under 26. Whatever the stakes on the remote Himalayan slopes, they are likely to carry an imprint of China as an adversary well into the rest of their lives. Nitin Pai asks: how does that help China?

7. India is running out of time in Doklam dispute with China
Zhou Bo says the stakes are high for both India and China, but New Delhi’s moral disadvantages in the issue - including its stance towards Bhutan, a sovereign state - weaken its position.

8. India’s got itself into a fine mess in Doklam. It’s time to get out and let China and Bhutan work it out
India is militarily engaging a state actor from the soil of a third country over a piece of land its partner country does not even control. Not even the mighty US does that, says Sourabh Gupta.

9. Bhutan can solve its border problem with China – if India lets it
The only surviving Tibetan Buddhist kingdom is caught between a rock and a hard place, seemingly willing to negotiate its longstanding territorial claims with Beijing but feeling the heat from an overbearing New Delhi, writes Tsering Shakya.

10. How India border stand-off gives China a chance to burnish its global image
Jerome A. Cohen and Peter A. Dutton call on Beijing and New Delhi to seek impartial arbitration to resolve their problem. After its heavy-handedness in the South China Sea, the latest row offers China a fresh chance to show respect for international law.

11. This standoff is China telling India to accept changing realities
John Garver writes: as technology kills the distance between the two Asian giants, the current Himalayan standoff is Beijing’s way of warning New Delhi not to trample too egregiously on China’s interests, or else...

12. This is India’s China war, Round Two
The absurd myth of an ‘unprovoked Chinese aggression’ in 1962 has fermented in India a persistent longing for revenge, says Neville Maxwell.


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China-India border dispute

12 perspectives on the China-India border dispute in Doklam

US President Barack Obama hugs India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: Reuters

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi looking at a terracotta warrior in Xian. Photo: EPA

Chinese troops hold a banner which reads "You've crossed the border, please go back" in Ladakh, India. India has said it is ready to hold talks with China with both sides pulling back their forces to end a stand-off along a disputed territory high in the Himalayan mountains. Photo: Associated Press

A young Buddhist monk stands atop the steps of the Punakha Dzong in Punakha, Bhutan. Photo: AP

An Indian soldier guards a helicopter near the border in Himachal Pradesh. Photo: Handout

Prayer wheels being turned by a young monk at Chimi Lhakhang temple. Photo: Travel Post Magazine

Beijing has in fact successfully negotiated nearly all its land border disputes, sometimes explicitly invoking relevant international law. Stark exceptions are China’s still-disputed borders with India and Bhutan. Illustration: Ingo Fast

An Indian national flag flies next to the a Chinese national emblem. Photo: AP

Chinese troops carry out a live-fire military exercise in Tibet amid a stand-off with India on the border, on July 17. Photo: Handout

Recasting a complex history to reflect a ­Chinese centrality that never existed is part of China’s current narrative of power. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Zhou Enlai and Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1950s. Photo: AFP

Visiting Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan kisses a student during a visit to the Tagore International School in New Delhi in 2014. Photo: AP

A Chinese soldier next to an Indian soldier at the Nathu La border crossing in Sikkim in 2008. Photo: AFP

Dispatch from Doklam: Indians dig in for the long haul in standoff with China

Indian soldiers on the border say they are quickly closing the capability gap with China and will not leave Bhutan to its fate

Vehicles travel along a mountain road near the Nathula Pass, an open trading post in the Himalayas between India and China, in Sikkim, India, on Wednesday, May 4, 2106. The Nathula Pass, once part of the ancient Silk Road and later sealed after a 1962 war, was reopened in 2006 as a symbol of improved relations between Asian neighbors that account for more than a third of the world's population. A decade later, however, it perhaps better reflects a trust deficit: the pass even does not account for one percent of overall bilateral commerce. Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg

*** ONE TIME USE ONLY *** Internet picture of Indian Soldier at the Nathu La border crossing between India and China in india's Northeastern Sikkim state. Photo: Handout

File - In this Wednesday, Oct. 23,2013, file photo, an Indian national flag is flown next to the Chinese national emblem during a welcome ceremony for visiting Indian officials outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. India says it is ready to hold talks with China with both sides pulling back their forces to end a standoff along a disputed territory high in the Himalayan mountains. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

Young Buddhist monks attend the 'Degon Yarchos Chenmo 2017' (Buddhist Summer Council) at the Diskit monastery in the Nubra Valley in India's Ladakh region near the Chinese border on July 12, 2017. China and India have engaged in countless spats over the Tibetan community since New Delhi granted sanctuary in 1959 to Dalai Lama, who celebrated his 82nd birthday in Ladakh on July 6, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / MONEY SHARMA

Kangchenjunga sunrise view from Sikkim, India. Handout photo

China held a live-fire military exercise in Tibet amid a stand-off with India on the border. Handout photo

How a road on China and India’s border led to the two powers’ worst stand-off in decades

Indian border security officers at Kaza in the Himalayan region of Himachal Pradesh in India. Photo: Alamy

Hostile border dispute with India could damage China’s global trade plan, experts warn

An Indian flag flies next to the Chinese national emblem outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The ongoing dispute between India and China could hamper Beijing’s economic ambitions. Photo: AP

Senior Colonel Wu Qian, Deputy Director-general of Information Office, and Spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense, talks about the Development of the Chinese People's Liberation Army at a presser at the State Council Information Office in Beijing. 24JUL17 SCMP/Simon Song

***ONE TIME USE ONLY, PLEASE CLEAR THE COPYRIGHTS BEFORE RE-USE - OTUO*** China held a live-fire military exercise in Tibet amid a standoff with India on the border. 17JUL17 PHOTO : HANDOUT

epa06113830 Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (C) hosts the seventh meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) senior representatives on security issues held at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing, China, 28 July 2017. EPA/NG HAN GUAN / POOL

epa06113837 Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval attends the seventh meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) senior representatives on security issues held at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing, China, 28 July 2017. EPA/NG HAN GUAN / POOL

Are China-India trade ties turning sour amid border standoff?

A file picture of Chinese and Indian guards at the two country’s border at the Nathu La pass. The area is now the scene of a standoff between the two nations’ militaries. Photo: AFP

Can China and India still be business partners despite territorial row in Himalayas?

Hu Jianlong writes that economic cooperation between the two emerging markets is deepening, even as nationalism flares on social media

FILE - In this Sunday, May 5, 2013, file photo, Chinese troops hold a banner which reads "You've crossed the border, please go back" in Ladakh, India. China is insisting that India withdraw its troops from a disputed Himalayan plateau before talks can take place to settle the most protracted standoff in recent years between the nuclear-armed neighbors. (AP Photo, File)

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrives for his teachings during the 'Degon Yarchos Chenmo 2017' (Buddhist Summer Council) at the Diskit monastery in the Nubra Valley in India's Ladakh region near the Chinese border on July 12, 2017. China and India have engaged in countless spats over the Tibetan community since New Delhi granted sanctuary in 1959 to Dalai Lama, who celebrated his 82nd birthday in Ladakh on July 6, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / MONEY SHARMA

*** Photo source UNKNOWN, PLEASE CLEAR THE COPYRIGHTS BEFORE REUSE*** The picture above shows Indian soldiers carrying this very rifle on a patrol during the Sino-Indian war. [NEW FILE SIZE: 1.04MB]

A viral video of Indian attacks on Chinese Vivo and Oppo retail stores in Pune, India misleads people about China’s standoff with India, columnist Hu Jianlong writes. Photo: Bloomberg

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