New Delhi: China has constructed around three villages near Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India. The villages are constructed five kilometres (approx.) from the Bum la Pass. It is near to the tri-junction between India, Bhutan and China, which is located in western Arunachal Pradesh.
The newly made constructions might be a step towards reinforcing territorial claims by China along the Arunachal border.
China-watcher Dr Brahma Chellaney said, ''China has been using a strategy of settling Han Chinese and Tibetan members of the Communist Party along the India border to strengthen its territorial claims and escalate border intrusions. Like it used fishermen in the South China Sea, China uses civilian resources - herders & grazers - as the tip of the spear to intrude into Indian-patrolled Himalayan areas."
The high-resolution satellite images show the Chinese village in Bhutanese territory. These were constructed when Indian and Chinese soldiers faced off in Eastern Ladakh. It was the worst crisis the two nations have witnessed since the 1962 war.
The images, which are taken from Planet labs shows that only a single village was constructed in the area in February 2020. The second image shows the addition of three additional constructions by November 2020.
China debates for the legal status of the boundary in this region. The Chinese map also shows 65,000 square kilometres of this territory south of the McMohan line as being a part of Beijing's South Tibet Region.
However, India rejects the claims made by China and says that the McMohan line, which was proposed by the British administrator Sir Henry McMohan defines the boundary.
In September 2017, General Bipin Rawat, the then Army Chief said, "As far as [the] northern adversary is concerned, the flexing of muscle has started. The salami slicing, taking over territory in a very gradual manner, testing our limits of threshold is something we have to be wary about."
The new villages have houses with water, electricity and internet access.
On the other hand, a border province in Shannan, Cona, plans ''to relocate 3,222 people of 960 families to the weakly controlled areas on the borders on a voluntary basis."