Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Tawang: The Indian monastery town coveted by China (1/2)
Anbarasan Ethirajan - BBC News
Wed, March 8, 2023 at 9:17 p.m. PST
High in the Himalayas, the holy town of Tawang is one of the
most intractable issues in the border dispute between India and China - and a
potential flashpoint for future conflict.
Along snow-capped ridges to its north, soldiers from Asia's two biggest armies face off, sometimes just a few hundred metres apart.
Last December, they clashed in what some experts saw as a worrying sign of how things could escalate.
Tawang, a pilgrimage site for Tibetan Buddhists perched some 3,000m (10,000ft) above sea level, is home to India's largest Buddhist monastery.
For this reason and because of its strategic location, it's long been the focus of tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
The town is claimed by China. Tibet, annexed by China in 1950, lies just 35km (22 miles) to the north.
"It's not just the Tawang sector," Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, told the BBC.
"The entire Arunachal Pradesh [state], which we call southern Tibet, has been illegally occupied by India - it's non-negotiable."
Tawang hit the headlines in December after the first clashes there in years. India said Chinese soldiers encroached into its territory and "unilaterally tried to change the status quo".
China said its troops were on routine patrol on their side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which separates Chinese and Indian held territory, and had been "blocked by the Indian army illegally crossing the line".
The fight that ensued reportedly left several soldiers
injured on both sides. It followed a far more serious clash in 2020 at the
other end of the disputed frontier.
In a mass brawl in Ladakh's Galwan valley, 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops were killed - it was the first fatal confrontation over the border in 45 years and highlighted the risks faced as the rivals try to further their strategic goals.
Since then, tensions have escalated, with both sides deploying tens of thousands of troops with heavy armaments along the disputed border.
Claims are being reinforced in other ways too.
In mid-February India announced plans to invest in more than 660 "vibrant villages" to encourage locals near the border to stay. The move was seen as a response to reports of model villages on China's side.
India is also promoting tourism in Arunachal Pradesh with hotels, restaurants and home-stays springing up in Tawang and surrounding areas.
India and China share a frontier that isn't fully demarcated, and have overlapping territorial claims. India says it is 3,488km long; China puts it at around 2,000km.
Of all the disputed areas, Tawang remains high up on China's list of claims.
It was among areas taken during a brief war in 1962 that ended in a humiliating defeat for India. Thousands of PLA troops overran Indian positions before withdrawing.
"Tawang is indispensable to China. The Tibetan spiritual leader the sixth Dalai Lama was born there [in the 17th Century]," said Mr Zhou, who attended India-China border talks as a military expert in the mid-1990s.
"What better evidence do you need to prove that it's Chinese territory?"
India asserts its boundary claim based on the 1914 McMahon line, named after the British foreign secretary of colonial India.
(to be continued)
Translation
聖城達旺位於喜馬拉雅山的高處，是中印邊界爭端中最棘手的問題之一，也是未來衝突的潛在導火線。
沿著北部白雪皚皚的山脊，來自亞洲最大的兩支軍隊的士兵對峙，有時相距僅幾百米。
去年 12 月，他們發生衝突，一些專家認為這是顯示事態可能升級的令人擔憂的跡象。
達旺是藏傳佛教徒的朝聖地，位於海拔約 3,000 米（10,000 英尺），是印度最大的佛教寺院所在地。
由於這個原因以及它的戰略位置，它長期以來一直是這兩個擁有核武器為鄰國之間緊張關係的焦點。
中國聲稱對該鎮擁有主權。 西藏位於北部僅 35 公里（22 英里) 處, 於1950年被中國吞併。
中國人民解放軍退役大校Zhou Bo告訴 BBC: “不僅僅是達旺地區” 。
去年 12 月，達旺在發生多年來的首次沖突後成為頭條新聞。 印度稱中國士兵侵入其領土並“單方面試圖改變現狀”。
中國表示，其軍隊在分隔中國和印度控制領土的實際控制線（LAC）的中國一側進行例行巡邏，“被非法越線的印度軍隊封阻”。
據報導，隨後發生的戰鬥導致雙方數名士兵受傷。 此前，2020 年在有爭議邊界的另一端發生了更為嚴重的衝突。
在Ladakh's Galwan河谷的一場大規模鬥毆中，20 名印度士兵和 4 名中國士兵喪生 - 這是 45 年來邊界上的第一次致命對抗，突顯了對手試圖推進其戰略目標時所面臨的風險。
此後，緊張局勢升級，雙方都在有爭議的邊界沿線部署了數万名攜帶重型武器的士兵。
對該處擁有主權的聲稱也在其他方面加強。
2 月中旬，印度宣布計劃投資到 660 多個 “活力村莊”，以鼓勵邊境附近的當地人留下來。 此舉被視為對中方示範村報導的回應。
印度也在推動Arunachal Pradesh的旅遊業發展，酒店、餐館和民宿在達旺及周邊地區如雨後春筍般湧現。
印度和中國有一個沒有完全劃定的邊界，並且有重疊的領土主張。 印度說它長 3,488 公里； 中國將其定在 2,000 公里左右。
在所有有爭議的地區中，達旺在中國的主權聲稱的清單上仍然名列前茅。
這是 1962 年一場短暫的戰爭期間佔領的地區之一，這場戰爭以印度的恥辱性失敗告終。 數千名解放軍士兵在撤兵前佔領了印度陣地。
在1990 年代中期作為軍事專家參加了印中邊界談判的 Zhou先生說: “達旺對中國來說不可或缺。西藏精神領袖第六世達賴喇嘛在 [17 世紀] 那裡出生”。
“你需要什麼更好的證據來證明它是中國領土？”
印度是根據 1914 年麥克馬洪線 (McMahon Line）提出邊界主張，麥克馬洪線以英國殖民地印度外交大臣的名字命名。
中國拒絕接受這條線 - 它從不丹東部穿過喜馬拉雅山，將整個
Arunachal
Pradesh 邦置於印度一側。
（待續）
沒有留言:
張貼留言