have retracted their official acceptance of
the Anglo-Chinese convention of 1890, nor
have they made alternative territorial claims
regarding this segment of the border.
This is not to say that China and India had
no disputes over Sikkim. China refused to
accept India’s authority over Sikkim, which
was once a semi-autonomous Tibetan king-
dom that later became a protectorate of
Great Britain and then of India. After India
officially annexed Sikkim in 1975, China
continued to refuse to acknowledge Sikkim
as part of India. Only after 2003, when India
acknowledged that Tibet was part of China,
did China start to acknowledge Sikkim as
part of India.
In recent years, while there have been
numerous confrontations between bordertroops from the two countries in disputed
territories in other regions, the Sikkim-Tibet
border has been relatively quiet. Thanks to
the relative stability in the region, China and
India agreed to reopen the Nathu La pass
along the Sikkim-Tibet border in 2006.
But in the wake of the recent standoff,
China has responded by closing the pass,
stopping 57 Indian pilgrims who were on
their way to the Manas Sarovar Lake in Tibet.Mutual Accusations
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, In-
dian troops crossed the “mutually recognised”
border line and trespassed into Chinese terri-
tory. Citing the Anglo-China Convention of
1890, which states that the boundary of Sik-
kim and Tibet will be set by the watershedmountain ranges that “commences at Mount
Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier,” Lu Kang,
a spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry,
said in a press conference held on June 29,
2017 that Indian troops had entered Chinese
territory.
Lu also showed the media a map with the
borders demarcated and a couple of photos
showing Indian troops and vehicles on the
Chinese side of the watershed range. Later
in an interview with the Press Trust of India
(PTI) held on July 4, Chinese ambassador
to India Luo Zhaohui said that the recent
standoff is “the first time that Indian troops
have crossed the mutually recognised bound-
ary,” which is “different in nature from the
previous frictions between the two sides at
the undefined sections of the China-IndiaIndian Army personnel watch at the Bumla pass at the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh, which is claimed
by China as the region of South Tibet, October 21, 2012
Photo by BIJU BORO / VCG