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Strategic Vision vol. 9, no. 47 (September, 2020)
Land Grab
Pandemic used as cover for action on longstanding India-China border dispute Raviprasad Narayanan
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photo: BMN Network
OVID-19 has held the whole world in a state of crisis with millions of diagnosed positive cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths. This is an opportune moment for the world to come together, although there are differences of opinion about what exactly the virus is, what its origins are, and how best to diagnose and treat it. Conversely, at this moment, some governments see an opportunity to enforce their writ, using the lockdown and the preoccupation with fighting the virus to ignore international concerns and legal niceties.
has been expanding its territory by ignoring the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which was established in an agreement signed by both sides in 1993, called the Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China Border Areas.
Such is the case with China’s continuing provocations in the high Himalayan region of western Ladakh in India, where the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
Army (PLA) in this area. Under the command of their colonel, the troops were tasked with enforcing India’s right to patrol the Indian side of the LAC and remov-
PLA ambush Matters escalated recently when 20 Indian soldiers were killed in an ambush by the People’s Liberation
Dr. Raviprasad Narayanan is an associate professor at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.