China’s Pangda village, 2.5 km inside Bhutan, is 9 km from the site of the confrontation between India and China Doklam 2017
New Delhi:
Bhutan today denied reports that China has built a village more than 2 kilometers within Bhutan’s territory near the disputed Doklam Plateau, despite clear satellite images and detailed map locations indicating otherwise.
Maps bearing the official seal of the Bhutan government, accessed by NDTV, also indicate that this new Chinese settlement is within Bhutan’s current claim lines.
Location of China’s Pangda village near the Doklam plateau, overlaid on the official map of Bhutan. Source: National Bureau of Statistics, Government of Bhutan. Click here for a high resolution image.
Reacting to the NDTV report that highlighted what appears to be a clear Chinese incursion, Major General Vetsop Namgyel, Bhutan’s ambassador to India, said: “There is no Chinese village inside Bhutan.”
On whether Bhutan and China had reached any understanding on the realignment of the border in the disputed area, the ambassador said he “does not comment on border issues.” However, he confirmed that Bhutan and China were involved in border talks, a process slowed down by the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday, Shen Shiwei, a senior producer for CGTN, China’s state-sponsored media, showed several images of the village featuring a road and chalets by a river and tweeted: “Now, we have permanent residents living in which he established Pangda village. It is along the valley, 35 km south of Yadong country. Here is a map to show the location. “
This is the tweet of @shen_shiwei which has now been removed. The location of the town clearly marked on the map you included. pic.twitter.com/6f09ulZXlz
– Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) November 19, 2020
International observers, including Nathan Ruser, a satellite imagery analyst at the Australian Institute for Strategic Policy, responded to Shen’s tweets highlighting that the location of the Chinese village indicated a clear violation of Bhutan’s sovereignty.
“Here is a CGTN news producer openly admitting that China has occupied and now populated part of a sovereign country,” Mr. Ruser tweeted. “This Pangda village has been built (as shown on the included map) 2.5 km beyond Bhutan’s international border. China now unsubstantiated around 12 percent of Bhutan,” Ruser said.
In response to Bhutan’s refusal this morning, Mr. Ruser tweeted: “Strange statement considering that there are satellite images and extensive photos from the ground of this village within Bhutan, 9 kilometers from the Doklam standoff. It seems a lie to me. cheeky. “
Other international observers, including Detresfa, who works extensively on Chinese developments in the Sino-Indian border region, independently tweeted the exact location on the map of Pangda village. Satellite images of the location accurately match images of the now complete village that have been shared on social media in China.
Accurate location and satellite images of the Pangda village of China, located 2.5 kilometers within the territory of Bhutan. Click here for a high resolution image.
The new Chinese village is in an area of immense sensitivity towards India.
In 2017, the armies of India and China had clashed at a site on the Doklam plateau, just 9 km west of this settlement. Beijing insists that Doklam is Chinese territory, while India backs Bhutan’s claim to the area. India has historically been a network security provider for Bhutan and both countries have agreements to closely cooperate with each other on issues of national importance.
On June 30, 2017, at the height of the clash between Indian and Chinese forces, New Delhi accused Beijing of violating a 2012 agreement by unilaterally altering the status quo of the triple union border in the region. New Delhi believes that this triple junction between India, China and Bhutan lies north of the 2017 standoff site at Doka La, on the western edge of the Doklam Plateau, while Beijing believes it lies well to the south on Mt. Gipmochi according to an 1890 treatise..
For India, any Chinese move to invade further south into the Doklam plateau region would place it dangerously close to the narrow and potentially vulnerable Siliguri corridor, the narrow strip of land that links the northeastern states of India to the rest of the country.
It is for this reason that any realignment of the Bhutan-China border within the wider Doklam area would set off alarms in New Delhi. And yet, Bhutan’s denial of any Chinese invasion of its territory is an indicator that this is precisely what may be happening.
In a series of tweets this morning, Tenzing Lamsang, editor of The Bhutanese newspaper, noted: “Bhutan and China recognize the 269 square kilometers in the west and the 495 square kilometers in north-central Bhutan as [being] disputed and therefore while there are maximalist claim lines on both sides, there is still no mutually accepted international border. “
India would like to know if the dialogue between Bhutan and China has meant that the small village of Pangda, widely showcased by Chinese state media, is now part of a territory that until recently belonged to Bhutan, but may now be Chinese.
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