New Delhi: India has lodged a “solemn protest” with China through diplomatic channels over the establishment of two new counties in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, one of which called He’an contain large parts of the Union Territory of Ladakh, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Friday.
At a regular media briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India has never accepted the “illegal Chinese occupation” of its territory in the area.
“Creation of new counties will neither have a bearing on India’s long-standing and consistent position regarding our sovereignty over the area nor lend legitimacy to China’s illegal and forcible occupation of the same. We have lodged a solemn protest with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels,” he said.
Sources informed ThePrint that a diplomatic note was handed to the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, registering India’s protest over the two new counties, which consist parts of Aksai Chin. China began the occupation of Aksai Chin—which forms the easternmost part of the Union Territory of Ladakh—from the 1950s.
On 27 December, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported the creation of He’an and Hekang, both of which are part of the Hotan prefecture in Xinjiang. The townships of Hongliu and Xeyidula were respectively declared the seats of these counties.
Beijing’s move comes barely a week after Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi for talks of the Special Representative on the Boundary Question – a mechanism first established by the two neighbours in 2003. Doval was in Beijing for the special representative-level talks on 18 December.
Redefining maps
The new counties announced is the latest in Beijing’s efforts to redraw boundaries in its favour. In 2023, China released maps, which included Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh as part of its territories. Last year, Beijing went about renaming various places along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The two countries have recently thawed the chill in diplomatic ties, over four years after the border clashes in Galwan in 2020. On 21 October last year, New Delhi announced an agreement had been reached to disengage from friction points on the LAC.
The agreement paved the way for a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan on 24 October, 2024.
‘Will take measures to protect interests’
Jaiswal on Friday also addressed questions on a new hydropower dam that China has proposed on the Yarlung Tsangpo river in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which is reported to be one of the largest in the world once constructed.
The Yarlung Tsangpo flows through India and Bangladesh as well and is known as the Brahmaputra once it reaches Assam.
“As a lower riparian state with established user rights to the waters of the river, we have consistently expressed, through expert-level as well as diplomatic channels, our views and concerns to the Chinese side over mega projects on rivers in their territory,” Jaiswal said at the press briefing.
“These have been reiterated, along with the need for transparency and consultation with downstream countries, following the latest report. The Chinese side has been urged to ensure that the interests of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are not harmed by activities in upstream areas.”
India will be monitoring the situation closely and take the “necessary measures” to protect its interests, the MEA spokesperson said.
The dam was proposed at the end of 2020 and, according to media reports, could produce 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. If constructed, this would triple the amount of electricity produced by the Three Gorges Dam in China. The Three Gorges Dam is currently the world’s largest hydroelectric project.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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