UPDATED at 1:53 P.M. ET on 01-08-2025
Read RFA coverage of this story in Uyghur.
China has created two new counties in southwestern Xinjiang in disputed territory also claimed by India, a move analysts say is aimed at strengthening Beijing’s control over the area -- and will likely exacerbate tension with India.
The two new counties — Hekang and He’an — are in Aksai Chin, a rugged, high-altitude desert area that China took from India in 1962 during the Sino-Indian War. It is the easternmost part of the larger Kashmir region claimed by India as part of its Nubra district in Ladakh.
“The two new counties show that China is consolidating its control over Aksai Chin,” said Anders Corr, principal of the New York-based political risk firm Corr Analytics.
“The move will further inflame tensions with India, which might seek to retake the Aksai Chin if there is a war with China over Taiwan, for example,” he said.
India objected by lodging an official protest with Beijing, according to Indian media reports.
The decision to create the two new counties was approved by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, according to a Dec. 27 announcement on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region government’s website.
The He’an county government will be located in Yulghun township, or Hongliu in Chinese, of Hotan county, while the Hekang county government will be located in Shaydulla township of Guma county, the announcement said.
Renaming locations
In other spots along its border with India, China has renamed locations to reflect its desire for territorial expansion and to normalize its occupation of disputed areas.
Last year, Beijing issued Chinese names for 30 locations in India’s Arunachal Pradesh to bolster its claims to that territory.
Speaking to reporters on Jan. 3, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said India never accepted China’s “illegal occupation of Indian territory in this area.”
“The creation of new counties will neither have a bearing on India’s long-standing and consistent position regarding our sovereignty over the area nor lend legitimacy to China’s illegal and forcible occupation of the same,” he said during the briefing.
Jaiswal also said India conveyed its concerns to Beijing about the planned construction of a mega hydropower project — which would be the world’s largest such dam — on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, the Tibetan name of Brahmaputra River, which flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
‘Break apart India’
China had expressed its willingness to cooperate with India on border issues, and on Dec. 18, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 23rd round of boundary negotiations.
But just 10 days later, China announced the creation of the two counties — which U.S. political analyst Gordon G. Chang said could be a negotiating ploy.
“After all, the Chinese are talking to the Indians about territorial matters,” he said. “But we have to step back and understand that China is seeking to break apart India. It has for decades. This establishment of counties is just another tactic in a very long series of tactics of China to break apart India.”
Erkin Ekrem, a professor at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, said the move is part of Beijing’s pressure tactics against India.
“The aim is to pressure India with a viewpoint or policy that claims this region has historically been Chinese territory in order to resolve the border dispute, and they have been trying to gain control of whatever border they desire,” he said.
Ekrem predicted that China would try to relocate Uyghurs living in the Aksai Chin area and bring in Han Chinese settlers.
He said this is what occurred nine years ago when Chinese authorities established the city of Qurumqash, or Kunyu in Chinese, in Xinjiang, when they brought in many Han Chinese with the Bingtuan, a state-run economic and paramilitary organization that develops land and secures borders.
Leveraging infrastructure
Major infrastructure projects in Xinjiang and neighboring Tibet are positioning China to have the upper hand in territorial disputes and other disagreements that could escalate, Ekrem said.
The creation of a massive reservoir in Tibet, for instance, not only secures China’s water resources but also gives the Chinese leverage over India and other bordering countries, he said.
Recent upgrades to Hotan’s dual-use airport mean that the air field can be used by the military in the event of a conflict with India, and extensive railway networks built by the Chinese in Tibet can facilitate rapid troop deployment, he said.
“Through these infrastructure developments in both East Turkestan and Tibet, China has created a strategic advantage from military and defense perspectives,” Ekrem said, using Uyghurs’ preferred name for Xinjiang.
“These regions can serve as a rear base in any potential conflict with India, allowing China to potentially gain control of the region,” he said. “This strategic positioning explains the significance of these new construction projects and establishment of the counties.”
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
The story was updated to include a link to Randhir Jaiswal’s comments at the press briefing.