China has set up a village 2 km inside Bhutan’s territory, close to Doklam where the Chinese and Indian Army faced an intense standoff in 2017, images shared by a senior journalist with the Chinese state media showed on Thursday, November 19.
In tweets that have now been deleted, Shen Shiwei, a senior producer with Chinese CGTN News, posted the images of the village set up in the Doklam area and later also mentioned the exact location of the settlement.
1.This is an astounding tweet with clear evidence of a CHINESE LANDGRAB WITHIN BHUTANESE TERRITORY, app. 9km from the India-China faceoff site in Doklam. The map shown here by @shen_shiwei, a senior journalist with Chinese state media, indicates this village is 2 km inside Bhutan https://t.co/UdNtS309yM
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) November 19, 2020
2. Let me make it more clear – comparing his map location (top image) with the actual ground position (bottom). pic.twitter.com/cH67wV4uyC
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) November 19, 2020
3. For reference – the big red box is where the Doklam face off between India and China took place a few years ago. And the small box is where the village is located per @shen_shiwei pic.twitter.com/CzNqZlz4Lq
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) November 19, 2020
4. And this is a zoomed out location – Sikkim to the west, China to the north and the location of the village to the east, well within Bhutan. pic.twitter.com/zS2alRArHc
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) November 19, 2020
5. I always believed India was responsible for Bhutan’s territorial integrity but `salami slicing’ by China has been a constant concern. This area, in @shen_shiwei ‘s initial tweet earlier today was referred to as the Doklam area. Will @DrSJaishankar @rajnathsingh take note?
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) November 19, 2020
Here’s a CGTN news producer openly admiting that China has occupied and now populated part of a sovereign country. This Pangda village has been constructed (as shown by the included map) ~2.5km beyond Bhutan’s international border. China now baselessly claims about 12% of Bhutan. https://t.co/3TxNSffYdJ pic.twitter.com/fEAgWXk7Ln
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) November 19, 2020
The Chinese village of Pangda is 2 kilometres inside Bhutanese territory and raises India’s fear of what is known as ‘salami-slicing’ which refers to Beijing’s attempt to cut into Indian and Bhutanese territory.
The Doklam area is on the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan. China poses a huge threat to India as it is building a road in the location which makes it easier for China to reach the Chicken Neck or the Siliguri corridor of India and can make attempts to isolate northeastern parts of India.
The move comes at a time when tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are escalating and the two armies have been in a standoff for months now. The Doklam standoff has been one of the most intense face-offs in decades between India and China before the violent scuffle in eastern Ladakh that started earlier this year and peaked in June and claimed at least 20 Indian Army personnel’s lives.
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