China, as the only country capable of combining its economic, military, diplomatic and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to the open international system, has put its neighbours on the edge.
India, which shares a 3,488 km unsettled border with China, must be particularly watchful, after Beijing passed a new law — the Land Border Law — last month.
The new law comes into force from January 1, 2022. It deals with the country’s patrolling activities on its 22,100-km land border with its 14 neighbouring countries.
What makes the situation complex is that China has settled its boundaries with all its neighbours, except India and New Delhi's staunchest ally in the region, Bhutan.
Crucially, it is also the first such legislation enacted in China’s modern history and reveals the belligerence that President Xi Jinping’s `new’ policies mean for the region and its immediate neighbourhood.
The new border law ``shall take effective measures to strengthen border defence construction, support the economic and social development of the border and open up to the outside world, promote the action of strengthening the border and enriching the people of the border, improve the level of border public services and infrastructure construction, improve the production and living conditions of the border, and encourage and support border residents in border production and life, and promote the coordinated development of border defence construction and border economy and society”.
In other words, the law makes the settlement of its civilian population on contested borders legal.
India has slammed China for its `unilateral' move to bring in a new land border law, which New Delhi said was a matter of concern as the legislation could affect existing bilateral pacts and the unresolved border between the two countries.
According to Beijing’s interpretation, the law is meant to “safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity” while promoting “good neighbourly friendship and exchanges and cooperation” with the countries it shares land borders with.
Its implications for India are many. Moneycontrol talked to two leading former Indian diplomats, both of whom are acknowledged experts on China, having served as Indian envoys in Beijing. Both have authored or edited bestselling books on the Big Dragon and know the world’s latest superpower better than most.
‘China’s approach to settle the border issue will become more inflexible and rigid’
Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Secretary and Indian Ambassador to China between 2006-2009, says that the law is a way to make a more forceful claim on the border. Her new book, The Fractured Himalaya, looks at the early years of the India-China relationship.
What do you make of China’s new border law?
Though I am not aware of the specifics of the new land law enacted by China, it will make it difficult for India and other neighbours to deal with China. Their entire approach to settle the border issue will become even more inflexible and rigid. Apart from historical reasoning, it is the Chinese perception of what they regard as their own frontier and how best to safeguard it, which becomes important.
What's the reason behind settling civilian populations on these borders?
If it means settling their civilians on the border, then that is what it is. The new Chinese border law seems to be a legislation to enforce its claims more forcefully than before.
It is the reality of the two Asian giants coming up close against each other in the Himalayas and the fact that this common border between the two countries has never been settled. Though both sides have made earnest attempts to resolve the dispute over several decades, positions in New Delhi and Beijing have hardened (since the Galwan Valley clashes of June 2020).
‘Chinese law enacted now, but that is what they have been doing all these years’
Gautam Bambawale, Indian Envoy to China, 2017-2018 and who edited a highly recommended book, Rising to the China Challenge, says that the real issue is how they are using their military power and that the law does not change the situation on the ground much.
How does China's new border law change the situation on the ground?
It really does not change anything on the ground. The Chinese law is ex-post facto. It has been enacted now but it is precisely what the Chinese have been doing all these years. It is merely a rationalisation of what they have been doing. The fact that the boundary question is not resolved does not change, nor the fact that there were clashes in eastern Ladakh in 2020.
Is it a message to India?
If this was meant to send a message to India, it has fallen flat. After all, every country talks about protecting its borders and its sovereignty. China does it, so does India. What is of concern is bringing in troops and soldiers to our borders and making incursions, not a border law.
The absence of this law did not prevent China from amassing troops and attempting to change the status quo in eastern Ladakh or re-settling the population by building new villages in border areas across Arunachal.
The `real issue’ is what they are doing with their military, what they have done since May 2020, the way India has reacted… That is what impacts the ground situation. I don’t see it (the law) as having any great impact on negotiations, if there are any negotiations.
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