at the end of August in 2023 the People's Republic of China unveiled their new standard map the map of China's territory From beijing's perspective the thing about this new standard map of China though is that it contains numerous territories on it that are not in fact actually controlled by China but which China claims on the map anyway the map shows huge territories that are currently administered by India Bhutan Vietnam Malaysia brunai Indonesia the Philippines Taiwan Japan and even Russia as all belonging to China giving China the largest number of open territorial disputes with other countries in the world many of the disputes shown in the map are more wellknown such as China's claims to the entirety of thawan and China's Maritime claims projecting out across the entire South China Sea and all of the islands within it which clashes directly with the competing Maritime claims of States like Vietnam the Philippines Malaysia Indonesia and berai other Chinese territorial claims on the map are lesser known and less publicized such as China's claims to the Saku islands that are currently administered by Japan while other Chinese claims on the map have appeared as brand new and are kind of open to interpretation such as China's surprise renewal of their claim to the entire bullo usisi Island in Russia that was thought to have been settled by a treaty between Moscow and Beijing in 2008 but evidently not but by far the biggest series of territorial disputes shown on China's new standard map besides Taiwan and the South China Sea are across the vast Frontier separating China from India across the Himalayan Mountains the Border here between the world's two most populous nations stretches in windes for 3,400 km across the Earth's most rugged and harsh geography through the world's highest mountains and some of its largest glaciers and as a consequence it has always been difficult to accurately mark on the ground where one country's territory ends and where another's begins consequently the India China border to this date has never actually been properly demarcated and as a result it is the longest openly disputed border remaining anywhere in the world today with no legal recognition of what the actual border between them should look like the deao border between India and China is known as the line of actual control instead the frontier between Indian control territory on one side and Chinese control territory on the other where tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides stand off against each other and on either side of the line of actual control the rightful final borders claimed by both India and China are significantly different and vastly opposed to one another across three separate sections of the line of actual control China and India disputed amount of Territory between them that's roughly the same size as Portugal and home to nearly 2 million people in the Northwest are two larger areas known as axai chin in the trans Korum tract territories currently controlled and administered by China but also claimed by India in the center are some much smaller disputed territories while in the East are the largest and arguably most controversial series of disputes here south of the line of actual control is the Indian administered and controlled state of arunachal Pradesh an area that is roughly the same size as Austria and home to about 1 A2 million Indian citizens that is also fully claimed in its entirety on China's new standard 2023 map as belonging to Beijing China insists on referring to this territory as South Tibet instead and they are so insistent on their claims to it that Beijing currently refuses to even stamp the Indian passports of arunachal Pradesh residents whenever they travel to China opting instead to provide them with stapled visas as a direct legal challenge to India's sovereignty and control over the Terr and right next door to Aruna chal Pradesh or South Tibet is the independent Mountain Kingdom of Bhutan a small nation home to only a little more than 700,000 people that is currently suffering a quiet and underreported on creeping Invasion From China China quietly pressed Bhutan into seeding away this Northern Area known as kolakari to Beijing in the 1980s but since then China has quietly claimed invaded occupied and even settled three other significant territorial claims in Bhutan in the west the North and the east of the country representing roughly 12% of bhutan's internationally recognized territory that is currently claimed by China and China isn't just claiming these territories in the Western and Northern sections of Bhutan they claim their army has quietly occupied them and begun building military infrastructure in them while in the northern sector they've even begun constructing full-blown settlements and Villages that have exploded in size just since 2020 with satellite images showing a rapid development of hundreds of Chinese homes and buildings in the territory over just just the past 4 years China is therefore constructing entire Villages within bhutan's internationally recognized territory changing the demographic facts on the ground and reinforcing their claims with settlers and soldiers while they're continuing to add on new territorial claims as well it was only in 2020 when China suddenly also began claiming the saang wildlife sanctuary in the Far East of Bhutan as well a territory that they don't yet control on the ground like the other two but which they might also attempt to quietly invade and seize soon as well the Future these numerous territorial disputes between India and China are extremely controversial in 1962 they led to a war between them that killed thousands and since the 2010s they've nearly led to the outbreak of another war between them on multiple occasions as the geopolitical Rivalry between Beijing and New Delhi has intensified including extremely tense military standoffs across the line of actual control in 2017 and again in 2020 the left dozens of soldiers killed and wounded and involved brutal hand-to-hand medieval style combat between the two rival armies and in order to understand why India and China have all of these territorial disputes today that add up to an area the same size as Portugal why the intensity of the dispute has been growing increasingly higher in the 2020s why China has quietly invaded occupied and even colonized around 12% of bhutan's territory and how this entire situation could push the world's two biggest countries with more than onethird of the global human population between them each armed with nuclear weapons into a cataclysmic confrontation in the future it helps to understand the historical and Geographic origins of the dispute and what's truly at stake from both China and India's perspectives the modern states of India and the People's Republic of China were born around the same historical era Modern India was born after it received its independence from the British following the conclusion of the second world war in 1947 while the People's Republic of China was established only 2 years later in 1949 after the Communists fin finally emerg victorious in the long-running Chinese Civil War against the Chinese nationalists and upon each of their geopolitical appearances the each inherited the outstanding baggage and decisions of their legal predecessors the colonial British authorities in India's case and the Ching Empire and the independent state of Tibet in China's case the area of axai chin in the western sector almost immediately became controversial over differing interpretations between Beijing and New Delhi over border treaties signed between both of their predecessors the region itself has almost always been a remote difficult to access and largely unpopulated high altitude desert that historically didn't matter very much in the 19th century it was understood between the colonial authorities in British India and the Ching Empire that the border between their Realms ran somewhere through this area but because of the regions difficult to access geography the exact boundary remained largely undefined eventually in 1897 the British authorities in India proposed The Johnson ug line to be the boundary between them along the crest of the Klan mountains which placed axai chin fully within the territory of the princely state of jamu and Kashmir which was effectively a British protectorate at the time this line was however seemingly never actually presented to the Chinese government for approval and then just 2 years later in 1899 British authorities in India proposed and presented a completely different boundary line here to the Ching Chinese called the McCartney McDonald line which placed the boundary further to the Southwest along the crest of the kakora mountain range instead and effectively put axai chin within China instead the British authorities presented the McCartney McDonald line to the Ching government in 1899 through a note but the Ching never actually officially acknowledged or responded to it which has led to more than a century of differing interpretations ever since the Indian government has insisted that the Ching's lack of a response to the McCarney McDonald line indicated their rejection of it while the modern Chinese government has insisted that the lack of a response only indicated that the Ching already believed it to be the accepted boundary and that a response wasn't necessary confusingly if official British maps from 1899 up until India's independence in 1947 used both the Johnson Artic line and the McCarney McDonald line almost interchangeably well no attempts were made by either the British or the Chinese to actually establish any Authority between the lines on the ground so when India achieved its independence in 1947 it claimed the entirety of the princely state of jamu and Kashmir as its own territory and they selected the Johnson arog line as their official Eastern Border that placed axai chin within their territory well naturally after the Communists took over control of China after 1949 they selected the McCartney McDonald line as the official boundary that placed axai chin as an extension of their own Shin Jong Province but despite this disputed boundary relations between China and India were initially relatively warm India became the very first non-communist country to recognize the People's Republic of China's government in April of 1950 but merely months after they did that in October of 1950 China tested the relationship when they invaded and then Annex the deao independent state of Tibet after the Ching Empire had collapsed in 1912 Tibet managed to emerge out of the chaos as a deao independent Buddhist theocracy that survived for decades although the Republic of China that initially succeeded the Ching never recognized tibet's Independence and Tibet remained a largely unrecognized state by the rest of the outside International Community for its entire existence except by Mongolia who had similarly declared their independence following the Ching's collapse during the roughly four Decades of the early 20th century that Tibet remained de facto independent it unilaterally entered into a series of Border negotiations with the colonial British authorities in neighboring India between 1913 and 1914 Tibetan authorities met with representatives of Britain and the Republic of China at the similar convention to discuss the status of Tibet in tibet's borders with British India the British proposed the Tibet would remain under the control of the Tibetan government as effectively an autonomous Chinese tributary or vassel state while the British further proposed that the previously undefined border between British British India and Tibet would follow a line drawn up by then British India foreign secretary Henry McMahan that became known as the McMahan line the McMahan line placed a vast area that had previously been under Tibetan and Ching influence within British India and in sent the Chinese negotiators present at the simar convention refused to sign the agreement and left which left the British and Tibetan representatives to sign the final agreement anyway without Chinese approval that solidified the McMahan line as the border from each of their persp perspectives the nature in which this agreement was signed without Chinese approval has remained controversial for more than a century ever since by signing the agreement and effectively annexing the territory south of the McMahan line the British violated numerous previous treaties they had signed such as the angl Russian Convention of 1907 that bound Britain into not negotiating with Tibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese government and the anglo-chinese convention of 1906 which further bound Britain to not Annex any Tibetan territory since there were significant legal doubts to the McMahan Line's validity even during the time period the British never even showed the McMahan line on any of their maps of India until 23 years later after it was signed in 1937 while the British never even published that the similar convention had even happened at all in their treaty record all the way until 1938 China has therefore argued ever since as both the Republic of China and later as the People's Republic of China that the Tibetan government never had the legal authority to unilaterally agree with the British on the borders of Tibet because they argue that China never recognized tibet's Independence China has thus maintained that the 1914 Sima convention that assigned the territory south of the McAn line to British India was an unequal treaty forced upon them during the century of humiliation and that India's continued control of what they refer to as South Tibet is a lasting Legacy of British imperialism well conversely as the legal successor to British India India recognizes the legitimacy of the McMahan line and argues that it follows the natural geographic border of the Indian subcontinent across the crest of the Himalayan Mountains and the China's claims to what they call a rachal Pradesh south of the Himalayas is a legacy of Chinese imperialism to a territory that has been Indian for nearly a century now either way after China invaded Tibet in 1950 and annexed it in 1951 they immediately inherited the territorial disputes south of the McMahan line controlled by India in addition to the disputes over aai chin between the Johnson arog and McCartney McDonald lines as well as several other smaller disputes in between and the whole reason why the Chinese Communist Party decided to invade and Annex Tibet in the first place was rooted in paranoia over the risk of India gaining influence or control over Tibet instead you see Tibet is often referred to as the water tower of Asia or as the world's third pole because it contains the highest and largest reserve of freshwater that can be found anywhere in the world outside of the polar regions the Tibetan Plateau has tens of thousands of glaciers scattered all across it and it contains the headwaters that give rise to many of Asia's mightiest Rivers including both the yellow and yang SE rivers that flow through China the Mong river that flows through southeast Asia the Indus River that flows through Pakistan and the Brahma Putra river that eventually flows through Northeast India and Bangladesh the waters that originate in the Tibetan Plateau are estimated to provide the Lion Share of freshwater supplies to approximately 2 billion people across Asia while the yang sea and yellow Rivers through China provide the primary drinking water supply for about 600 million Chinese citizens not to mention all of the electricity they provide through Modern Mega projects like the three gorgees Dam on the Yang sea river which all on its own produces roughly the same amount of electricity as the entire country of Bangladesh does with nearly 170 million people the security of the water supplies in these two rivers is a core strategic concern of China's and so immediately after the People's Republic was proclaimed in 194 49 the Chinese Communist Party opted to permanently secure the river sources by securing their control over Tibet so that a hypothetical Regional rival in the future like India would never be able to do that instead initially the Chinese granted Tibet significant autonomy after they ceased control over it and in 1952 the Indian government chose to even recognize China's newly established sovereignty over Tibet hoping to allay China's senses of insecurity in the region but then only a few years later by 1959 significant ific tensions that built up between the Tibetans who had been used to an absolute Tibetan Buddhist theocracy that rever the Dalai Lama and the new communist Chinese authorities that espoused the eradication of feudalism and the destruction of religion religious Tibetans began worrying that the Chinese authorities were preparing to arrest the 14th Dal Lama and the tensions eventually exploded into a full-blown Tibetan revolt against Chinese Authority in 1959 the people's Liberation Army cracked down on the Revolt harshly killing thousands of Tibetans in the process and sending the 14th Dal Lama and some of his loyal entage to flee across the border for safety in India where he along with thousands of Tibetan refugees were all granted Asylum afterwards the 14th Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government in Exile in India right across the border and he continues to survive there in India to this very day in 2024 at the age of 88 much to the unease of China China miscalculated at the time in 1959 that India had fermented the rebellion in Tibet and then New Delhi ultimately intended to trans form tobet into a protectorate of theirs which would have established Indian control over the sources of the Yang sea and yellow rivers and India's subsequent welcoming and hosting of the Dal Lama and his government in Exile only fueled China's paranoia about this even further in the aftermath China clamped down on Tibet more harshly and revoked the province's formerly high levels of autonomy while Chinese control of Tibet established beijing's comparatively more easy access to the disputed territory of axai chin relative to India since axai chin Shin was located on the opposite side of the kakor mountains from India and accessible to the rest of the flatter Tibetan Plateau from China this then led the Chinese across the 1950s to construct a strategic Highway across axai Chen that connected their provinces of Tibet and Shen Jong which transformed aai chin into a strategically valuable territory for China as an infrastructure linkage point between two of the country's most politically unstable regions and that led the Chinese authorities to present a deal to India the year after the Tibetan Revolt in 1960 on settling the Border dispute between them China proposed creating a demilitarized zone between them across the length of the border and offered to recognize India's control over arunachal Pradesh south of the McMahan line in exchange for India recognizing China's control over the newly strategically valuable axite chin with an updated border region several miles west of the old McCartney McDonald line in order to give China a large buffer away from their strategically valuable Highway India however categorically refused the Chinese offer on all counts insisted that both arunachal Pradesh and axai Chin were Indian territories and began moving troops to advance towards India's claimed borders if India Advanced all the way towards their claimed boundary in axai chin towards the old Johnson arog line then the Indians would have severed the highway connecting Tibetan Shin Jong and they would control a geographic Launchpad on the other side of the kakar mountains within the Tibetan Plateau itself that they could used to project power into the rest of Tibet from and calculating that that was unacceptable the Chinese decided to respond by launching a war against India in 1962 thousands of soldiers died in the ensuing Sino Indian War and by the end of it the Chinese had emerged decisively Victorious pushing their deao line of control all the way to their desired western frontier and AI chin to the foo Hills of the kakor mountains and even advancing Deeper South of the McMahan line in the East into arunachal pesh though they decided to withdraw back North across the McMahan line afterwards so as not to antagonize outside powers to greatly like the United States the defeat in the 1962 War served as a national shock and humiliation to India while it provided a lesson at China that deterring India's territorial Ambitions in the region required occasional displays of violence to put down for decades afterward the border disput between India and China remained present but at a lower level of intensity as China dealt with numerous internal crises and economic problems that disincentivized external shows of strength Beijing pursued territorial compromises and settle with many of their other neighbors during this time period like with Myanmar and Nepal during the 1959 Tibet and Uprising with Mongolia Vietnam and LA in the aftermath of the great Chinese famine in the 1960s and after the 1989 Tian Square massacre and with Central Asian States like Tajikistan kiristan Kazakhstan and Afghanistan during High periods of unrest in Shin Jong across the 1960s and the 1990s but then beginning in the early 1990s China's economic fortunes and geopolitical power began rapidly shifting as the era of ch China's incredible economic rise began China's economy soared into becoming the second largest in the world in nominal terms by 2010 and it even became the largest in the world by purchasing power parody terms by 2016 when it surpassed the United States China's economic rise was so rapid between 1970 and 2022 that it went from accounting for less than 3% of the global economy in 1970 to accounting for nearly a fifth of the global economy by 2022 and with China's increasing economic power came its rapidly increasing military power as well and with that China's growing Ambitions China became less and less interested in settling and compromising with its remaining open territorial disputes it had with Taiwan and the South China Sea and with India and Bhutan across the line of actual control and after the rise of xiin ping to power in China since 2012 the People's Republic has pursued a much more aggressive and assertive foreign policy with its neighbors a trend that has been similarly followed in India since the 2014 election of Narendra Modi who also pursues an assertive and nationalist foreign policy for India as well from the current perspective of New Delhi in 2024 they have many many reasons to be wary of China's position and intentions on the other side of the line of actual control especially in the Eastern region around Bhutan and arunachal Pradesh China's internationally recognized control of the chumi valley region wedged in between India Sim state in Bhutan is sometimes referred to in Indian strategic circles as a Chinese dagger that points precipitously close to one of India's greatest Geographic vulnerabilities the narrow Siliguri Corridor sometimes also referred to as the chicken's neck this is the extremely narrow land bridge that's only 24 km wide wedged in between the independent states of Nepal and Bangladesh that serves as the only land connection India has between their primary territory and their seven Northeastern states if the 24 km wide Siliguri Corridor were to come under Chinese occupation in the event of another War then China would cut off the roughly 50 million Indians who live here in the Northeast from any available access to the rest of India while perhaps even more pressingly China would also sever India's ability to send any reinforcements by land through their own territory to support Aruna Pradesh which would enable the pla to advance China's territorial claim in the region south of the McMahan line with heavily restricted Indian reinforcements and Logistics this paranoia from India's perspective is not helped by the location of China's territorial claims and incursions into Bhutan either and specifically this Chinese claim in Bhutan immediately to the east of the chumi Valley known as the Dolan Plateau were China to gain a firm control over the dolam plateau here they would acquire the Strategic Eastern High Ground looking down into their own chumi Valley they would reinforce their control over the valley enable them to more effectively mobilize and concentrate troops in the area and Grant them more access routes into India in the event of a conflict while they would also extend their territorial control much further south to the southern foothills of the Himalayan mountains which would then enable the pla to easily observe the Siliguri Corridor only 87 km away and observe any potential Indian troop movements flowing through the corridor India has maintained a very close special relationship with Bhutan ever since they signed a treaty of friendship all the way back in 1949 which granted India Special guidance over bhutan's foreign and defense policy especially as it related to China that treaty was only slightly relaxed as recently as 2007 and India has continued to remain as essentially bhutan's most important Ally and protector as New Deli wants to maintain bhutan's territorial Integrity as much as possible to keep them as a buffer State separating their vulnerable Siliguri Corridor away from China meanwhile over in the western sector India remains wary of China's control over aai chin in the trans Korum tract because of their proximity to the Cen Glacier and India's road that connects the remote area around the glacier back to the rest of Indian control territory the Cen Glacier is located within territory currently controlled by India but it's located immediately across the separate line of actual control that India also shares with Pakistan their arch geopolitical rival who also claims the territory of the former princely state of jamu in Kashmir Pakistan accepted China's territorial claims in the region of aai chin and the trans karakorum tract in order to secure beijing's support for the rest of their claims to the territory in jamu and Kashmir currently under Indian control that's also home to more than 12 12 half million people India is therefore primarily concerned about China's control over axai chin because in the event of a conflict the pla would not have to advance very far from axai chin in order to seize control over the Indian road that leads to the Cen Glacier opposite of the Pakistani Armed Forces which would then enable Pakistan to move in and seize control over the glacier without stable Indian reinforcements or Logistics between 1984 and 2003 Pakistan and India fought bitterly over the control of this glacier in which an estimated 2,000 soldiers were killed which earned the Cen Glacier the moniker of being the highest Battlefield in the world and the concern here around the Cen Glacier and axin is only a small part of India's greater fear of the overall extremely close relationship that has emerged between Pakistan and China both countries maintain large territorial claims to lands that India currently controls Pakistan claims 110,000 square kmers of land that India controls not only in jamu and casir but also in the formerly princely state of junar that Pakistan also claims within India's modern state of Gujarat combined with China's claims to Indian controlled territories like aruno chal Pradesh Pakistan and China collectively claim nearly 200,000 square kilometers of Indian administered territory a huge area that's roughly the size of Washington state in the United States India's Ultimate Nightmare scenario is being one day forced into fighting a two-front war against Pakistan and China at the same time both of whom are armed with nuclear weapons Well India is even further growing increasingly concerned that China is starting to encircle them from an economic point of view since China unveiled the belt and Road initiative in 2012 six out of India's seven immediate neighbors have signed up to become a part of the initiative Pakistan Nepal Sri Lanka Bangladesh Myanmar and the Maldives only Bhutan India's closest Ally in the region has join New Delhi in resisting The Lure of joining the belon road initiative which has led New Delhi into feeling that it has been losing significant clout in its own backyard to Beijing that could reduce Regional support for India in the event of a potential future conflict the talks of potential Chinese debt traps and hypothetical Naval bases in many of these countries like hiyaku in Myanmar hent TOA and Sri Lanka and guar in Pakistan has not aided with India's growing feelings of insecurity in Chinese encirclement though China has still to date not actually built any Naval facilities in any of these locations yet meanwhile from China's perspective their border dispute with India and Bhutan is truly only a secondary concern of theirs at the moment throughout the 2020s beijing's primary territorial Focus will almost certainly remain on asserting the Chinese Communist party's control over Taiwan whereas India's ultimate nmare scenario is a twofr front war against Pakistan and China China's Ultimate Nightmare scenario is having to fight their own two-front war against the United States and her allies in the Pacific during an assault on Taiwan and against India across the Himalayas region a major war with India over the disputed landb order is not within China's best interests while its focus is fixated east on Taiwan and so Beijing would like to keep things on the line of actual control as quiet as possible for now China is overall considered to be relatively happy with the status quo On the Border they've maintained since their military victory over India in 1962 but they remain incentivized to deter any and all perceived Indian threats to challenging it and increasing their leverage whenever they sense the opportunity to do so however because of India's continuous claims on axai chin and other locations along the line of actual control and India's consistent refusal to ever consider recognizing China's claim to axai Chin in exchange for beijing's recognition of India's claim to arunachal Pradesh China has likely calculated that settling the Border dispute with India once and for all to permanently stabilize the border and prevent the odds of a two-front war when necessarily require China to make territorial concessions to India like giving up on arunachal Pradesh or South Tibet forever and retreating from axai chin the transor tract and the other smaller territories and Beijing is likely reason that from its new found position of strength and power in the 21st century they have no further need to make any compromises on territory moreover even if Beijing were to make a significant territorial compromise with India to settle the Border dispute it would carry with it a precedent for China's other ongoing and more serious territorial disputes in places like the South China Sea which could Harden the resolve of countries like the Philippines Vietnam and Malaysia to Simply decide on waiting the Chinese claims out and pushing back more firmly against them China also maintains old concerns and grievances about India's continued hosting of the 88-year-old Dal Lama ever since he fled from Tibet in 1959 and its hosting of the influential Tibetan government in Exile as well which lobbies international support for tibet's greater autonomy within China and sometimes even for tibet's outright Independence again and there are newer greater concerns about India that have been growing in China recently since the 2010s too namely India's increasingly close relationship with her own top geopolitical rival the United States as China has risen in strength India has naturally sought a counterweight to increase their own negotiating power and what better counterweight than the most powerful country in the world and for Washington increasingly concerned about great power competition with China in the Indo Pacific theyve calculated that there is no better country in the region to counter China's rise than India India now has a larger population base to pull from than China does its economy has risen to become the fifth largest in the world and is likely to surpass Japan soon to become the fourth largest and its defense spending is already increased to become the fourth largest in the World Behind only the heavy weights of America China and Russia the Indian Navy as a modern and capable force with two aircraft carriers in operation compared to China's three carriers which gives India the ability to project power across the Indian Ocean region in a way that few other countries can match wishing to court India against China since the 2010s then Washington has invested considerable diplomatic effort into pleasing New Delhi the United States amended its own domestic laws to allow for the construction of six us designed nuclear power reactors in India in 2016 the United States has publicly backed India's efforts to become a new permanent member of the United Nations security Council which China opposes the United States has Exempted India from sanctions that other countries have suffered by purchasing oil from Iran and Russia and in 2017 after a nearly decade long Hiatus India Australia Japan and the United States revived the quadrilateral security dialogue or the quad between them a strategic security dialogue that involves joint military exercises dedicated to countering China's Maritime claims in the South China Sea and the Indo Pacific both militarily and diplomatically India's capable Navy and their possession of a series of far-flung islands known as the Andaman and nikobar islands make beijing's military planners particularly anxious these islands sit strategically close by to the Western entrance of the malaka strait a narrow choke point that represents the fastest Maritime route available between the Chinese Pacific coast and the rich oil and gas fields around the Persian Gulf the malaka strait therefore represents China's most critical energy artery through which an estimated 60% of China's entire oil supply flows through if the us or Allied navies were to blockade the malaka strait during a wartime scenario such as during an attempted Chinese invasion of Taiwan then 60% of China's oil supply would immediately become eliminated which would quickly begin to starve their War Machine of vital fuel the US Navy already maintains a base on the Eastern edge of the malaka straight in Singapore and if the Indian Navy join the war or Worse granted the US Navy the rights to base themselves in the endam and ncbar Islands too then China would face the Dilemma of defending the critical malaka Strait against hostile Naval forces on both of its flanks moreover back along the line of actual control on land India's open bellicosity towards Pakistan and their competing claims with Pakistan and jamu and Kashmir is yet another grave concern of beijing's to have to deal with since 2015 China's single largest project of their entire belt and Road initiative has been focused in Pakistan and dubb the China Pakistan economic Corridor or CAC China has poured more than $65 billion do worth of investment into developing this project over the decade since it began which includes a modern Deepwater ported guidar on the coast and a well-built road and rail line from the port leading up across Pakistan's territory into China's Shen Jang Province to Beijing the cek has become a Cornerstone of their strategy and avoiding their Reliance on the malaka strait for oil imports coming in from the Persian Gulf since with the cek operational Persian Gulf oil can just be transported to guar and then carried by truck or rail car up through Pakistan and into China directly which greatly reduces China's vulnerability to an American Naval blockade in malaka moreover the project is also intended to spur on economic development in China's Shin Jong region which Beijing hopes to use to reduce militant influence on Muslim separatists among the native weager people there but alarmingly for China the route of the CeX roads and Railways necessarily runs through the Pakistani controlled area of jamu and Kashmir in order to reach China which is all through territory that is disputed and claimed by India this whole project has greatly annoyed India but from beijing's perspective if India were to ever act on their territorial claims on the Pakistani controlled area of jamun Kashmir and successfully seize it through Force they would also seize control over the cek destroy China's greatest alternative oil import artery destroy more than $65 billion worth of Chinese investment and leave China more Expos to an American Naval blockade of Mala that could literally crash China's oil supply and wreck their military's operating Effectiveness during a war worse still China perceives its Air Force at being at a distinct disadvantage along the line of actual control with India because the operating altitudes across the Tibetan Plateau to the north of the line are much higher than the altitudes in India to the south of the line which lengthens the ignition times required of China's jet engines and restricts their aircraft Fuel and payload capacities which already will make China's air campaigns in the region more difficult than India's and doubly so if their oil supply is restricted by Indian and American seizures of their critical import arteries and then there is beijing's own perceived vulnerability of their chumi Valley too the valley here is narrow and is flanked by Higher Ground to the West in India Sim State and to the east in Bhutan with Bhutan a close military and diplomatic Ally of indiia Indian artillery imp placements during a wartime scenario On The Higher Ground all around the chumi valley could render it almost defenseless by initiating a Pinsir attack on it and then if the Indians secured control over the valley the valley leads directly through the Himalayas into the Tibetan plateau and from there relatively close by is laasa the religious and legal capital of Tibet with the Dal Lama and the Tibetan government in Exile both still hosted by India China's darkest fear is an Indian military Advance breaking through the chumi valley and carrying the Daly llama and the deedan government in Exile back to laasa again and encouraging another great Tibetan Revolt to erupt again in the process and so to better their own Geographic positioning around the chumi valley that is why China has been steadily and quietly invading and settling several strategically chosen territories of Bhutan China has long maintained a claim to the Dolan Plateau region of Bhutan on the pretense that it is a historic extension of Tibet but for the geopolitical rationale that it extends Chinese control to Encompass The Higher Ground east of the chumi valley and denies the Indian army the ability to access it instead but its claims to the other territories in Bhutan are much more recent China only began taking out claims to these territories in Northern Bhutan called The Bay Ule in the machuma valley only in the 1980s in an apparent attempt to directly Target bhutan's deeply Buddhist culture the Bayle area in particular is considered to be highly sacred and culturally significant to the budines people where the Kingdom's monarchy traces its ancestral Origins to to Bhutan China's claim in settlement of the bayu region would be as if Canada suddenly made a claim to the Statue of Liberty in Ellis Island in New York York and began actively colonizing them with armed troops and settlers for decades now since 1990 China has attempted to weaponize its claims over the sacred bayu region in the machuma valley to pressure Bhutan into a deal by offering to recognize bhutan's claims in the north if Bhutan only recognize China's claims to the doam plateau in the west China has noted during negotiations that their claim in the north is 495 km weather claim in the west is only 269 km implying the Bhutan stands to acquire the larger and more culturally significant territory by accepting the deal but accepting such a deal would immediately jeopardize bhutan's relationship with its historic protector and Ally India who would be loathed to see China's Geographic position in the Doan Plateau be strategically enhanced so nearby to their own vulnerable Siliguri Corridor India has relentlessly pressured Bhutan into never accepting the deal with China while standing up for bhutan's complete territorial Integrity but China has also continued building up the pressure on Bhutan to Cave into it in 2020 after Decades of fail negotiations China suddenly began claiming a whole new territory in the east of Bhutan encompassing the saang wildlife sanctuary in an apparent message to Bhutan that if they continue refusing to yield the Doan Plateau China will just continue claiming even more of bhutan's territory and in addition to the paper claims on maps China is solidifying their claims on the ground with a rapid influx of settlers and soldiers since 2020 as well in only the past 4 years the bay U and manuma Valley areas claimed by China and Northern Bhutan have seen a rapid pace of Chinese infrastructure development and settlement dozens of miles of roads have been paved hundreds of houses and other structures capable of supporting hundreds to even thousands of Chinese settlers have been constructed and even military and police outposts and electricity plants have been spotted by satellites China is constructing entire Villages within their claim territories in Bhutan and within the sacred region of the bay Ule increasing the pressure on bhutan's government even further to yield in order to regain their own control over the sacred bayu in exchange for giving up the doam plateau Bhutan is effectively being squeezed between the two giants of Asia that surround them as they attempt to outmaneuver one another and they are becoming presented with an impossible choice to make they can continue to ignore China's demands and continue watching more of their country's territory get claimed seized and colonized by Chinese settlers or they can cave to the Chinese pressure and surrender the Doan plateau in exchange for Beijing releasing their claims everywhere else and destroy their long-standing relations with India in the process who is their most important Ally and by far their most important trade partner as about 95% of bhutan's exports go to India and roughly 90% of bhutan's imports come from India where Bhutan to ever surrender the Doan Plateau to China India would feel that their final loyal Ally in the region would have turned against them and the sense of paranoia within New Delhi of becoming encircled by Chinese influenced countries would rise even further which means that India's willingness to confront China on the border more aggressively would rise as well Bhutan is a small but strategically located Kingdom a fewer than 800,000 people wedged in between two nuclear armed Giants with more than a billion people each and so they do their best to appease both sides as much as possible in order to avoid a full-blown war from erupting or cross their territory between them Bhutan is long maintained diplomatic relations with India ever since India's founding in 1947 and India's guarantee of BH protection since 1949 while Bhutan has never established formal diplomatic relations with China in any of its forms curiously bhan is the only country in the world who has never officially recognized either the mainland based People's Republic of China nor the Taiwan based Republic of China refusing to recognize the PRC in order to appease India but also refusing to recognize the ROC in order to non- infuriate Beijing too greatly moreover Bhutan has also avoided ever establishing diplomatic relations with any of the world's other major Powers as well so as not to antagonize China too greatly Bhutan is the only UN member State who maintains no diplomatic relations with any of the five permanent members of the United Nations security Council including none with the United States in fact Bhutan only maintains formal diplomatic relations with 54 of the 193 UN member states in its deliberate policy of isolationism that strategically aims to balance itself between the giant orbits of India and China but It ultimately remains difficult to see how this crisis at the roof of the world will ever be solved through diplomacy as China continues encroaching on bhutan's territory expanding their territorial claims even further building Villages and bringing in thousands of settlers a clash between China and India over the status of Bhutan may eventually be coming even though all sides involved wish to avoid one and it's already come very close to happening already in 2017 Chinese soldiers attempted to construct a road in the disputed Doan plateau of Bhutan that would have connected the territory to the be valyant toet which would have enabled Chinese troops and equipment to more easily access it terrified the Indian army came in with bulldozers and confronted the Chinese soldiers in tolam and initiated a 10th 73 day standoff where both armies formed human chains to face each other down before both sides withdrew then 3 years later in 2020 calculating that it needed to display a greater show of force towards India the Chinese began advancing thousands of soldiers towards different locations in the western section of the line of actual contr control which sparked a fierce Indian response and massive clashes along the border in a previous attempt to deescalate tensions along the line of actual control both India and China had agreed back in 1996 to ban all of their soldiers from carrying firearms or explosives near the border area to reduce the chances of a major incident taking place that could Cascade into a full-blown War again so because of that ban thousands of Chinese and Indian soldiers faced each other off high up in the mountains in 2020 armed with more primitive melee weapons instead like spiked clubs metal bars wrapped in barbed wire riot gear and machetes which led to the combat taking place between them in 2020 appearing to be more out of the Medieval Era than the 21st century depending on the sources the melee clash between the Indian and Chinese armies then resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of soldiers on both sides representing a massive escalation along the line of actual control since they were the first deaths caused by combat between India and China along their disputed Border in more than 40 5 years which led to campaigns in India to boycott Chinese products and India's subsequent Banning of hundreds of Chinese apps in the country including Tik talk and Alibaba the crisis sharply escalated geopolitical tensions between China and India and has reverberated over the years since into the present day and the next part of this video that covers how these border clashes went down and why they were so violent in 2020 compared to previous decades is all vital context to understanding where the dangerous india-china relationship is going in the future but unfortunately due to the inherently violent controversial and very recent nature of discussing in detail how one of the bloodiest melee battles of the 21st century happened the next part of this video that would cover all of it would almost certainly cause the rest of the video before it to become demonetized and age restricted which ultimately would mean that YouTube's algorithm would have never promoted any of this video 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