- Sunday, January 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN news channel NDTV has said in an exclusive report that a Chinese village, set up about nine kilometres east of the Doklam plateau where troops from India and China were locked in a face-off for 73 days in 2017, is now fully occupied with people and cars parked at the doorstep of almost every house. It has also accessed satellite images as proof of the project.
According to the news channel, the village, which China calls Pangda, is located squarely within the territory of Bhutan, the details of which the Indian channel reported in 2021.
#NDTVExclusive | Pics Expose China's Inroads Near Doklam – Bid To Bypass Indian Defences? https://t.co/mZu4Vkuv9E pic.twitter.com/KIiT5IhkIT
— NDTV (@ndtv) July 19, 2022
The report also said that a neatly marked all-weather carriageway is situated alongside Pangda, adding that all of it is part of Beijing’s “extensive land grab in Bhutan”, a tiny land-locked nation between India and China which stands no chance against Beijing. The project cuts 10 kilometres into the territory of Bhutan, along the banks of the Amo Chu river which after entering India, is called Torsa.
For New Delhi, Beijing’s construction along the Amo Chu river means China’s forces could end up getting access to a strategic area in the Doklam plateau, located nearby. This would also bring China closer to India’s sensitive Siliguri corridor, a narrow land (also called the Chicken’s Neck) connecting the north-eastern part with mainland India, NDTV said.
Five years ago, Indian soldiers had physically resisted Chinese workers from getting to the strategic area in Doklam called Jhamperi. The latest satellite images will raise a concern over China trying to approach the same area via an alternate route by bypassing the Indian defence.
“Pangda village and the ones to its North and South are a classic examples of the Chinese trying to establish their legitimacy over the Jhamperi ridge and the Doklam plateau,” retired India lieutenant general Praveen Bakshi, who was India’s Eastern Army Commander at the time of the Doklam face-off, told NDTV.
He added, “Widespread Chinese efforts at constructing villages along frontiers that it disputes is ”essentially a manner of giving legitimacy to its territorial claims.”
Sources in the Indian Army headquarters told NDTV, “The Army maintains a continuous and seamless vigil on all activities along its borders, especially those that impinge upon the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. For this, necessary mechanisms and safeguards to meet any contingencies are in place.”
“The speed and development of this remote area is noteworthy, underlining how China is extending its borders uncontested,” Damien Symon, a geospatial intelligence researcher at The Intel Lab who has analysed the latest images, told NDTV.
“The road construction activity in this distant, isolated sector highlights efforts taken by China to ensure all weather, uninterrupted connectivity to remote, new habitats across its frontier,” he added.
Major General Vetsop Namgyal, Bhutan’s ambassador to New Delhi, declined to comment on China’s construction in the Amo Chu Valley, indicating that Thimpu was involved in protracted border talks with Beijing.
India’s ministry of external affairs also did not comment on the issue, NDTV added.
”China is stepping up construction of villages, roads and security installations on territory that belongs to Bhutan, thereby strengthening its offensive military capability against India,” Brahma Chellaney, one of India’s leading China-watchers was quoted as saying by NDTV.
“Through such build-up, China is militarily positioning itself to threaten a particularly vulnerable section of India’s border overlooking a narrow corridor known as the ‘Chicken Neck’,” he added.
