India, China & Pak: The Great Himalayan Map Rally

NEW DELHI: Is the Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh a manifestation of a larger game played along the geopolitical fault lines in the Himalayas? Instances of cartographic aggression by China and Pakistan against India have been on since the 1960s. In 1963, Pakistan ceded Shaksgam Valley (that’s part of Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir) to China—this allowed access between Xinjiang and Gilgit Baltistan (this too is part of Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir). The 1300-km Karakoram highway extends from Kashgar in Xinjiang to a few kilometres beyond Islamabad. Since 2016, China has been building the China Pakistan Economic Corridor that links Kashgar with Gwadar. In this episode of Simply Nitin, StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale describes the motive behind the move that violates India’s sovereignty and the stern message India delivered last year when it came up with new maps after J&K was bifurcated into two union territories.