Sino-Indian border dispute

The Sino–Indian border dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large, and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India. The territorial disputes between the two countries stem from the legacy of British colonial-era border agreements, particularly the McMahon Line in the eastern sector, which was drawn in 1914 during the Simla Convention between British India and Tibet but was never accepted by China. In the western sector, the dispute involves Aksai Chin, a region historically linked to the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir but effectively controlled by China after the 1962 war. The lack of mutually recognized boundary agreements has led to ongoing tensions and occasional military clashes.

The first of the territories, Aksai Chin, is administered by China and claimed by India; it is mostly uninhabited high-altitude wasteland but with some significant pasture lands at the margins.^[1] It lies at the intersection of Kashmir, Tibet and Xinjiang, and is crossed by China's Xinjiang-Tibet Highway; the other disputed territory is south of the McMahon Line, in the area formerly known as the North-East Frontier Agency and now a state called Arunachal Pradesh. It is administered by India and claimed by China. The McMahon Line was signed between British India and Tibet to form part of the 1914 Simla Convention, but the latter was never ratified by China.^[2] China disowns the McMahon Line agreement, stating that Tibet was not independent when it signed the Simla Convention.

The 1962 Sino-Indian War was fought in both disputed areas. Chinese troops attacked Indian border posts in Ladakh in the west and crossed the McMahon line in the east. There was a brief border clash in 1967 in the region of Sikkim, despite there being an agreed border in that region. In 1987 and in 2013, potential conflicts over the Lines of Actual Control were successfully de-escalated. A conflict involving a Bhutanese-controlled area on the border between Bhutan and China was successfully de-escalated in 2017 following injuries to both Indian and Chinese troops.^[3] Multiple skirmishes broke out in 2020, escalating to dozens of deaths in June 2020.^[4]

Agreements signed pending the ultimate resolution of the boundary question were concluded in 1993 and 1996. This included "confidence-building measures" and the Line of Actual Control. To address the boundary question formalised groups were created such as the Joint Working Group (JWG) on the boundary question. It was to be assisted by the Diplomatic and Military Expert Group. In 2003 the Special Representatives (SRs) mechanism was constituted.^[5][6] In 2012 another dispute resolution mechanism, the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC), was framed.^[7]