Arunachal Pradesh a part of India : US

The United States of America has supported India in its dispute with China over Arunachal Pradesh and said It was an Indian territory. Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel of the United States State Department (the American government’s foreign ministry) said on 20 March 2024 that the United States strongly opposes any attempt to make advance territorial claims across the Line of Actual Control.

This American government’s response came after the Chinese military objected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh. The Prime Minister visited Arunachal Pradesh on 9 March 2024 to inaugurate the strategically important Sela tunnel, the world’s largest twin-lane tunnel. 

The 12 km-long Sela tunnel, built at 13,000 feet, will provide all-weather connectivity to the strategically important Tawang area in Arunachal Pradesh and help quickly deploy troops along the border with China.

China's Stand on Arunachal Pradesh 

China considers Arunachal Pradesh part of Southern Tibet. In China, Tibet is called Xizang. It claims that this area belongs to it and has routinely opposed the visit of Indian leaders to it. 

To assert its claim, China has named Arunachal Pradesh Zangnan.

India has always dismissed the Chinese claim over Arunachal and has asserted that it was an inalienable part of India.

India-China Border Dispute 

India shares a 3488 km long boundary with China. Many parts of the boundary between the countries are not defined and disputed. The border dispute led to a war in 1962 between the two countries. After relative peace on the border, there was again a deadly clash in Galwan in June 2020, which led to the killing of 20 Indian soldiers and 4 Chinese soldiers.

The India-China border, the Line of Actual Control (LAC), is divided into three sectors: western, middle and eastern. 

• The western sector comprises the Union territory of Ladakh, Tibet, and Xinjiang on the Chinese side.
• The Middle Sectors are Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Tibet on the Chinese side.
• The Eastern Sector comprises Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet on the Chinese side.

There is virtually no dispute in the middle sectors between the two countries, but the eastern and the western sectors are disputed and heavily militarised.

Dispute in Western and Eastern Sector 

Western Sector 

• In 1860, the British proposed the Johnson Line as the boundary between the State of Jammu, Kashmir, and Tibet. It included Aksai Chin in Jammu and Kashmir. 
• After independence, India claimed the Johnson Line as the boundary between India and China and staked its claim to Aksai Chin. 
• China has refused to accept the Johnson line as a boundary and has refused the Indian claim over Aksai Chin.
•  Aksai Chin is presently under the control of China.

Eastern Sector 

• In the Eastern sector, the dispute is over the MacMohan Line. A meeting of representatives of British India, Tibet and China was held in Shimla in 1913-14. It accepted the MacMohan Line as the boundary between India and Tibet.
• Initially, China accepted the MacMohan Line but later refused to accept it.
•  In 1951, India took over the Tawang area in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The sixth Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist Leader, was born in Tawang. Tawang also has the second-largest Buddhist monastery in the world after Lahsa, the capital of Tibet.

India -China Border and States along the Border

India shares a 3488 km border with China that runs along the Union Territory of Ladakh Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.

State-wise length of borders