Cross-border tension: India accuses China of Ladakh incursion

Army chief plays down the incident calling it 'a difference in perception'.

India claimed on Monday that armed Chinese soldiers had infiltrated Indian territory and threatened construction workers near a disputed border, in the latest sign of long-standing cross-border friction.

The Chinese incursion took place in the Himalayan region of Kashmir in September or October, the Press Trust of India said without citing a source for the information.

Chinese soldiers threatened an Indian contractor and his workers who were building a bus station near Demchok in the Ladakh region of Indian Kashmir along the Line of Actual Control that divides India and China. Construction work has been halted since then, the report said.

China has made similar incursions previously, the most serious in 1962 when the two sides fought a brief border war. The incident underscores the tensions that exist between the Asian giants stemming from India’s swift economic growth and the increasing challenge it poses to China’s dominance of the region.

On Monday, India’s army chief, General VK Singh, played down the incident saying it may have occurred over “a difference in perception” of where the border lies. Singh said the Line of Actual Control as perceived by India “runs in a particular direction, while the Chinese have a different alignment of the Line.”

“Unfortunately, some people for various local gains have pushed construction activity in that area,” General VK Singh said, dismissing PTI reports that the building was a transport shelter officially sanctioned by India.

India’s external affairs ministry in a statement later said the media reports were baseless and did not conform to fact. “They are, therefore, not a cause for concern. It will be recollected that there are differences in perception, between India and China, on the Line of Actual Control in this area,” the statement said.

New Delhi says China is illegally occupying 38,000 square kilometres of its northwestern territory, while Beijing claims a 90,000 square-kilometre chunk in northeastern India. The countries have conducted 14 rounds of talks to resolve their decades-long border dispute.

Despite the tensions, trade between the two sides, estimated at about $60 billion in 2010, has been booming and is expected to reach $100 billion in the next three years.  With input from news wires.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2011.