Why a border stand-off in the Himalayas is so important to Australia

Few nations are more important to Australia than Asia’s twin giants, China and India. So, it’s surprising that a sharp deterioration in relations between the two during the past 18 months has received scant attention here.

Political ties between New Delhi and Beijing have long been plagued by entrenched friction points. The pair fought a short but bloody border war in 1962, which still casts a shadow.

An Indian army convoy carrying reinforcements and supplies near the India-China border in the western Himalayas.Credit: Getty

The root cause of current Sino-Indian tensions is their ill-defined, disputed border that runs for thousands of kilometres along the Himalayas. A lack of formal demarcation means both sides have their own hazy interpretations of a de facto national boundary known as the Line of Actual Control or LAC.

For decades relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been roiled by confrontations and skirmishes along the LAC. But in June last year, the lingering friction flared into full-blown crisis when an extraordinary brawl erupted between Indian and Chinese troops patrolling at high altitude at the Galwan Valley near the disputed boundary in the western Himalayas.

Illustration by Andrew Dyson.Credit: Fairfax Media

No shots were fired, but the hand-to-hand combat was brutal. The fight reportedly took place on a narrow ridge and some troops fell into icy waters in the ravine below. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed, including a senior officer, in what the Indian government described as a “violent face-off”. The Chinese military later acknowledged the loss of four People’s Liberation Army troops. It was the deadliest clash between the two nations in 45 years.

Tensions again spiralled dangerously a few months later when Indian troops reportedly occupied strategic heights at Pangong Lake, also on the LAC. China and India accused one another of firing “warning shots” bringing to an end a protocol – in place since the 1970s – preventing the use of firearms at the border.

Both countries have reacted to tensions with a rapid build-up of troops, weaponry and transport infrastructure. Regular talks aiming to deescalate have ended in stalemate. According to Indian media reports, each side now has 50,000 to 60,000 troops stationed along the LAC in the western Himalayas alone. The huge deployment in such remote, inhospitable terrain is costly and dangerous.

“India-China border tensions have become one of the Indo-Pacific’s defining territorial disputes,” Nathan Ruser and Baani Grewal from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute write.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan in 2018, before recent hostilities began.Credit: AP

Each side blames the other for this state of affairs. India’s former national security adviser Shivshankar Menon says what happened in the western Himalayas was the result of a “fundamental and consequential shift” in Chinese behaviour at the LAC which forced India to “cede ground”. But Hu Shisheng, from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, claims it is the Indian government that has “stepped up efforts to act tough towards China”.

The border stand-off continues to stoke angry reactions in both nations. During the past fortnight India’s media has been awash with stories about Chinese encroachments along the border. Meanwhile, China’s state-owned nationalistic tabloid the Global Times published an article on Sunday saying India was showing a “the mentality of a loser” by trying to flex its military muscle along the LAC.

“India still cannot let go of the complete 1962 defeat to China, and wants to wipe the shame off one day,” it said. “However, it doesn’t have enough strength to do so.”

When India’s chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat said last week the troops and weaponry rushed to the LAC last year would not return to base for a long time Hu Xijin – the firebrand editor-in-chief of the Global Times – responded with a Tweet saying: “India is paying a high price for its stubbornness. They replaced serious consultation with China with the threat of allying with the US, as a result they will have a very expensive border. Get used to it slowly.”

Doctors pay tributes to Indian soldiers killed during confrontation with Chinese soldiers in the Ladakh region in June 2020.Credit: AP

For India, the border crisis has triggered a reassessment of its relationship with China.

Ian Hall, professor of international relations at Griffith University, says that before last year’s bloodshed India was happy to put disagreements over the Line of Actual Control to one side and progress other areas of its relationship with China such as trade.

“But after what happened in Galwan, the Indians have said no, we want to see progress on the LAC before we see progress on other things,” he said. “It is quite a big change.”

This shift has likely contributed to the rapid deepening of the Quad security partnership which involves India, Australia, Japan and the US. Leaders of these nations met in person for the first time in Washington in September.

Given the implications for Australia, why haven’t the tensions between China and India received more public attention here? One reason perhaps is that no major Australian media outlet has any journalists currently stationed in either China or India.

Amid frosty relations between Canberra and Beijing our reporters have not been able to get permission to work in China. Meanwhile, the ranks of Australian correspondents on the subcontinent have dwindled as media companies allocate scarce resources elsewhere. (The ABC has temporarily withdrawn its India correspondent but plans to have one back “on the ground” early next year. No other Australian media firm has an India-based correspondent.)

It’s hardly ideal as a new phase of antagonistic rivalry looms between two nations so important to Australia.

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