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Politics

India repeats mistakes of 1962 with continued violation of China's sovereignty: former journalist

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2017-07-26 09:13Xinhua Editor: Gu Liping ECNS App Download

Indian border guards' trespassing into the Chinese territory would risk repeating the mistakes of the Sino-India border conflict in 1962, a former Australian journalist warned.

The latest border standoff flared up in mid June when Indian troops were sent to disrupt Chinese construction workers building a road project in a plateau of land known as Doklam in China's southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region.

Neville Maxwell, 91, who was on the ground at the time of the 1962 conflict and worked as a Southeast Asian correspondent for the London Times, emphasized that India is echoing events of 1962 with continued violation of China's sovereignty.

The Doklam area lies in the midst of a three way Himalayan junction between China, the northeast of India and the Kingdom of Bhutan, and Doklam has long been a demarcated section of China under international law.

Beijing's historical claim dates back to the Convention between Great Britain and China relating to Sikkim and Tibet (1890), an agreement that has been repeatedly reconfirmed under a UN Charter, in writing, by successive Indian governments.

But despite the treaty, Indian has continued its aggressive and dangerous stance toward China and enacted the false notion that their presence inside China's border is at the request of Bhutan.

However, since 1980, China and Bhutan have held 24 separate border negotiations. Although a boundary has not officially been demarcated, both countries have a clear consensus on the practical condition of the border line.

CHINA'S DIPLOMATIC ACHIEVEMENTS WITH REGIONAL NEIGHBORS

Maxwell emphasized the importance China's remarkable diplomatic achievements with its regional partners.

Over the years, China has been able to negotiate boundaries with 12 of its 14 sovereign neighbors, the only two exceptions of course, have been India and Bhutan.

"Modern states need boundaries, not borders, not frontiers - Boundaries," Neville Maxwell told Xinhua recently.

"A boundary is a line jointly agreed between two neighboring states in a process of diplomatic negotiations, jointly marked out on the ground and sealed in a treaty - that makes a boundary."

For Maxwell, India's repeated signs of aggression and failure to comply with international law stems from two great delusions of the former British colony.

The first is the false narrative that Chinese forces were the instigators in the 1962 conflict and the second is the belief of the Indian ruling class that the country's borders can be drafted unilaterally.

Under the pretence of the illegal "McMahon Line" which is never recognized by China, India at the time declared a number of southwestern Chinese regions as their own and continued to push those areas forward in an attempt to grow their territory.

  

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