Satellite images show that China has built at least 22 villages and settlements in the past eight years in territory traditionally part of Bhutan, and since 2020 it has built eight more in areas near the strategic Doklam plateau. A village is being built.
All eight villages in western Bhutan near Doklam are strategically located on ridges overlooking Chinese-claimed valleys or valleys, and some are near Chinese military outposts and bases. The largest of the 22 villages discovered by observers and researchers, Jiu, built on a traditional Bhutanese pasture known as tsetangka, is also located in the west.
The location of these villages makes New Delhi’s China This has alarmed watchers. From mainland India to the northeastern states.
Doklam was the site of a 73-day standoff between Indian and Chinese forces in 2017, when New Delhi began construction of roads and other facilities to give China access to the southernmost tip of the plateau. intervened to prevent it. Although front-line troops from both countries withdrew from the area at the end of the standoff, recent satellite images show increased Chinese construction activity around Doklam.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to requests for comment on the development.
In recent years, Bhutanese authorities have denied the existence of Chinese settlements on Bhutanese territory, with former Prime Minister Lotay Tshering telling a Belgian newspaper in 2023 that Chinese facilities “do not exist in Bhutan.” He spoke out and caused a stir.
Bhutan did not respond to inquiries regarding this matter.
According to a recent report, since 2016, when China built its first village in what is now considered part of Bhutan, Chinese authorities have completed 22 villages and hamlets with an estimated 2,284 houses, housing about 7,000 people. The animals were relocated to previously unpopulated areas of Bhutan. Written by Robert Barnett, Research Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
According to the report, titled “Strong Diplomacy: China’s Cross-Border Villages in Bhutan,” China has annexed approximately 825 square kilometers “once located within Bhutan.” This corresponds to just over 2% of the country’s territory. China is also moving an unknown number of officials, construction workers, border police, and military personnel into these villages. All villages are connected by roads to Chinese towns.
The report says seven settlements have been built since the beginning of 2023, “demonstrating a significant increase in the rate and scope of construction in the annexed area”, and three villages are scheduled to be elevated to town status. .
Barnett said in the report that China’s objectives in Bhutan’s western sector “have been focused on acquiring and securing the Doklam Plateau and adjacent areas.” The eight villages of the western region form a line of 36 km from north to south, with an average distance of 5.3 km between each village. According to historians, they were built on territory ceded to Bhutan by the then Tibetan rulers in 1913.
Ashok Kanta, India’s special envoy to Beijing from 2014 to 2016 and honorary fellow at the China Institute, said China’s construction of villages in Bhutanese territory is a violation of the agreement signed by the two countries in December 1998. He said it would be the case. Peace and tranquility in the border area.
The China-Bhutan agreement states that the two countries “agree to maintain peace and tranquility in the border area until the final resolution of the border issue and maintain the status quo of the border as before March 1959.” has been done. Furthermore, both sides have stated that they will “refrain from taking unilateral actions to change the status quo on the border.”
Kanta said these villages were built in areas on the Bhutanese side of the traditional or customary boundaries on the Bhutanese map. “In 2017, although there was a withdrawal from the standoff (in Doklam), the Chinese continued to increase their presence in various ways, including in villages, road construction, and patrolling. They essentially created a fait accompli. “I’m doing it,” he said.
He said these villages were part of a pattern in which China “gradually and systematically changes the facts on the ground.” This is similar to the pattern in the South China Sea, where China created artificial features and militarized them. “Bhutanese are not in a position to challenge them because of the power asymmetry,” he said.
“This is all part of the characteristics of China, which ignores past commitments and other countries’ positions to pursue its own claims and get away with it,” Kanta said. “For us, it is important as it is in a sensitive area close to the Siliguri corridor.”
Barnett said that the main issue for India in light of these developments is the Doklam issue. “However, Bhutan, which has a treaty that respects India’s security interests, has said that the Doklam issue will be decided between the three countries and not by Bhutan. Therefore, no decision on Doklam will be taken without India’s involvement. “It seems very unlikely that this will happen,” he said.
“In the long term, the bigger question is whether China’s extreme pressure, or more precisely the use of force, will succeed in pulling Bhutan out of India’s sphere of influence and into China’s. Now, Bhutan has already had to cede a significant amount of territory to China, and India seems unable to help prevent that,” Barnett said.
“It seems inevitable that in the near future Bhutan will allow China to open an embassy in Thimphu and that trade with China will increase. “The issue will be determined by which party can win the hearts and minds of the Bhutanese people and which can bring real benefits to the people of Bhutan,” he said.
Over the past four years, relations between India and China have fallen to their lowest point since the 1962 border war due to the military standoff in the Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that began in April-May 2020. The two sides reached an agreement that paves the way for the withdrawal of frontline troops at Demchok and Depsang, the two remaining “friction points” on the LAC. Two days later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia and agreed to revive several mechanisms to address border disputes and normalize bilateral relations.
