New Delhi, Oct 24: China is resettling Tibetans close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) opposite Arunachal Pradesh to make the disputed boundary resemble an ordinary Chinese provincial frontier, with a long-term goal of pushing a “demographic invasion” into the Indian state over the coming decades, a report has warned.
Beijing is rapidly moving Tibetans into frontier settlements under its border-village and poverty-alleviation schemes, with figures cited by researchers showing that 241,835 people were involved in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s (TAR) border-village programme.
Other reports point to plans to shift tens of thousands of border residents into 628 villages, Lieutenant General (Retd.) Abhay Krishna, a former Army Commander of South Western, Eastern and Central Army Commands of the Indian Army, wrote in India Narrative.
“By resettling the Tibetan population close to the LAC across Arunachal Pradesh, China is attempting to make the LAC look less like a disputed line and more like an ordinary Chinese provincial frontier populated, connected, policed and defensible. The hidden long-term agenda of China is to infuse demographic invasion into Arunachal Pradesh over a few decades and gradually influence the hearts and minds of our young, coming-up generation there to begin to feel that they are more Tibetan than Indian,” the report mentioned.
The threat for India, wrote the defence expert, was not a sudden mass crossing of the LAC by Tibetan civilians but something far less visible. “It is subtler, that is, a state-sponsored population architecture that entrenches Chinese control opposite Arunachal Pradesh compressing India’s strategic depth and making future incursions look like routine local administration”.
About 72 per cent of China’s “Xiaokang” border villages lie close to the LAC in India’s north-eastern sector, with 90 per cent of those facing Arunachal Pradesh, the report said, adding that the settlements double up as surveillance, communication and logistics hubs.
“A village may support population settlement, administrative control and political messaging but also function as a logistical node. A road may be presented as developmental but it retains immediate military utility. This is a strategic competition by construction,” it stated.
While crediting the progress India has made in building roads, tunnels, bridges and airfields along the northern frontier since 2014, the India Narrative report called for a similar push to set up Indian border villages along the LAC, backed by roads, electricity and assured supplies.
“Identifying such village locations to extend our ‘civilian reach’ closer to the LAC with concerned State Govts of Arunachal, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, HP, Ladakh and rolling out an actionable plan with clear timelines and phases with committed financial outlays is an urgency and way forward,” wrote Lieutenant General (Retd.) Abhay Krishna.
IANS