Context
Recently, China’s legislature has adopted a new border law that calls on the state and military to safeguard territory and “combat any acts” that undermine China’s territorial claims.
Key-points about the Law
- Local Sovereignty and Integrity: It states that the sovereignty and integrity of the People's Republic of China is sacred and infallible.
- The state will take steps to protect the integrity of the environment and the boundaries of the land and to monitor and combat any act that undermines local sovereignty and the boundaries of the land.
- Responsibilities: It outlines the various responsibilities of the military, National Council or Cabinet, and provincial governments in regulating security and economic matters in border areas.
- The People's Liberation Army (PLA) will "perform border operations" including "training planning" and "determination prevention, deterrence and counter-terrorism, intervention, harassment and other actions".
- The state will take steps to strengthen border protection, support economic and social development and openness in border areas, improve public services and infrastructure in such areas, and promote and support human health and work there.
- The State, in pursuit of the principle of equality, trust and friendly dialogue, has handled issues affecting the country’s borders with neighboring countries through long-term dispute resolution negotiations and border issues.
Concern
- It will build on some of China's latest actions in rival areas with both India and Bhutan. The passage of the law is accompanied by an increase in Chinese activities at the country's border, which has marked actions in raging waters in the East and South China Sea.
- It involves the accumulation of PLA troops in areas along the Indian border and numerous offenses crossing the Line of actual control(LAC).
- China in recent years has been strengthening its cross-border infrastructure, including the development of airports, railways and roads. It also launched a bullet train from Tibet to Nyingchi, a town on the border near Arunachal Pradesh.
- Construction of new “frontier villages” along the Bhutan border.
China Border Disputes
- China has a national border of 22,100 kilometers of 14 countries.
- Resolved border disputes with 12 neighbors.
- India and Bhutan are two countries with which China has not yet concluded bilateral agreements.
- China and Bhutan have signed an MOU that strengthens a three-step roadmap to speed up border negotiations.
- The India-China border dispute covers 3,488-km near the Line of Actual Control, the China-Bhutan dispute covers approximately 400 km.
