Will Beijing’s efforts to enhance connectivity with isolated parts of Tibet put a chill on the recent thaw in ties with New Delhi?
State media has revealed that China plans to build three new airports along Tibet’s rugged southern border, an area dubbed the “Roof of the world”.
New airports are planned in Lhoka, Xigaze and Ngari, which border India, Bhutan and Nepal, and an additional runway is also envisaged at the capital Lhasa’s airport. The projects, referred to collectively as the “3+1”, have a total price tag of 16.7 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion). They are slated for completion by 2021 to spur air travel, trade and tourism, according to a People’s Daily report that cited a Chinese Civil Aviation Administration official.
But India claims large chunks of land in Lhoka, known as ‘Shannan’ in Mandarin, a prefecture-level city in southeastern Tibet that borders India and Bhutan on the south, was territory that formerly belonged to Arunachal Pradesh state. The disputed area, around 28,700 square kilometers in size, is not far away from Doklam Plateau and the valley that sits at the junction of Tibet, Bhutan and India’s Sikkim state.
Doklam was the scene of a military standoff between the two Asian giants, who assembled troops and weaponry in the area last year after Beijing tried to widen a road in the area.
However, ties have improved recently. Beijing and New Delhi agreed to a détente after Narendra Modi met with Xi Jinping in China three times since September last year. The Indian PM was in Qingdao last weekend for the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting.
The new airport in Lhoka was proposed long ago in Beijing’s 13th Five-year Plan (2016-20) but it’s feared that Beijing’s military posturing and its decision to press ahead with the project at such a juncture may anger New Delhi, after it pledged to avoid further militarization of the Doklam region – in exchange for a reciprocal response from Beijing.
Ngari prefecture in northwestern Tibet includes part of the Aksai Chin area, which New Delhi has also been demanding that Beijing should pull its troops out of – to end its “illegal occupation”.
Beijing has been expediting the ‘3+1’ projects, with a feasibility report approved in April.
But it’s hard to believe that the new airports to be built near the Indian border at elevations of thousands of meters – a hefty investment that would take a long time to recoup from a commercial perspective – would only be used for civil aviation.
The projects are similar to Beijing’s installation of long-range radars, and reportedly an anti-missile shield to eavesdrop and fend off an Indian attack should the two nations come to blows again, on the strategic Yading airstrip in western Sichuan province, which began operation in 2013 as a civil airport.
Read: Chinese military waging a cold war at the roof of the world
What’s the objective of China behind these steps? Is China feeling threatened of India! May be Yes.
THe paid trolls are challenging and threatening India and the world. These people and the for anyone they are working should realise that they cant make the whole world as enemy…remember Germany in 1942?
Same old. Same old. It’s a repeat of NATO’S propaganda that military exercises within Russia’ borders is a threat to Europe. NATO’s is blaming Russia for putting its western borders too close to NATO military installations.
China has the long view. When the first high speed railway was built the west sneered that it would run empty without passengers. When the 3 Gorges Dam was built the Brits had 101 reasons that it should not be built. So China has no reason to build airports within its borders if it is not military.
What bulls is ATS trying? The major part of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to the Tibetan homeland which lies north of the Bhamanputra river. Not satisfied with the illegal McMahon line encroaching on Tibetan land south of the Himalayas while the Chinese were in dire straits, the Indians now want to steal more land beyond the crest of the Himalayas? While the Indians are allow to build ALS on their side of the LAC without controversies, the Chinese building of airports is controversial? ATS should stop all these craps.
Why should AT staff or anyone outside China have any right to have beef with China building airports in China, civilian or military ones?
That India was not happy or even interfered in China’s building roads at Doklam last year suddenly gives these guys the encourage to even challenge China building facilities within in its own border? What’s next? India warns China that all troop must be withdrawn from Tibet? That China must demilitarizes across China-India border?
China shows restraint in last year’s Doklam standoff; consider that to be China showing maturity, leadership and calm. Don’t delusion yourself into thinking you have "deterred" China.