China is building illegal settlements in Bhutan

China is building settlements right across the border with the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan. The border area on the eastern side of the Himalayas is disputed between the two countries and although the borders have never been formally marked, China claims the areas and is rapidly building cities where it sends Han migrants. Poor Chinese from Tibet, reports CNN America.

Although China has been in talks with the one million Buddhist state of Bhutan for decades over demarcating formal borders, according to CNN, satellite images show a lot of construction going on in the disputed area. . For example, CNN has located at least five new settlements within the area claimed by both countries.

Land wave catching

China is no stranger to land grabbing by building a city on someone else’s land; Since 2016, Beijing has built around nineteen so-called ‘cross-border cities’ as well as three smaller settlements. Researchers from the University of London report that construction is taking place not only in north-east Bhutan, but also in the west of the kingdom – near the disputed border between the India and China.

The researchers are talking about a new ‘wave’ in construction since last year. As of this summer, more than 2,000 housing units – estimated to be homes for thousands of people – had been built in several towns in each region.

That construction is also supported by a growing network of roads, which, according to geointelligence researchers, have moved south into Bhutan from China in recent years. “None of the roads connect to Bhutan, they start at the Chinese border and end in forest areas. There is no connection with existing Bhutanese roads or villages,” said a researcher.

Valse claims

Despite what Beijing makes it seem, Chinese claims on Bhutan are anything but ‘traditional’; an official Chinese map from 1980 seen by CNN also shows the northern region as part of Bhutan. “China, as the most powerful player in the relationship, appears to be testing whether it can largely decide if and when it has the right to take ownership of disputed territory with a neighbor.” … and how and if the international community will respond,” a researcher from the University of London told CNN.

Chinese settlement in the area has everything to do with the border dispute that China has had with India in the neighboring country for decades. The two nuclear powers share a 3,379 kilometer long border and have already fought several armed conflicts. India and China reached an agreement earlier this month on military disengagement on part of their border.

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Bhutan has traditionally been a friend and protégé of India, which trains the Bhutanese army and has a permanent military mission there. This strong Indian presence makes China feel vulnerable, says Rishi Gupta of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New Delhi. “This is forcing China to increase its influence in Bhutan and assert its territorial claims more aggressively, in an attempt to counter India’s strategic partnerships in the region.

Border towns as a tool of settlement

The settlements that China is building in Bhutan are called ‘border xiaokang villages’. Xiaokang means ‘moderate prosperity’, so the villages are part of Beijing’s plan to fight poverty in rural China. However, experts say these villages are also part of Xi’s transfer projects in which civilian settlements are used to consolidate control of China’s borders.

For example, there will be more than 600 ‘xiaokang border towns’ in 2022 in Tibet, which China has occupied fifty of since 1951 and which, like Xinjiang, is ruled with an iron hand, the increase the population on the borders by 10.5 percent. “The villages aim to strengthen China’s territorial claims and control over the border areas, especially the disputed areas,” said Yun Sun of the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center.

“As soon as the people of the city get in China, China has a reason to put down troops and do administrative control. This strategy has a long history in China, dating back to the Han Dynasty.”

Asked for comment, Bhutan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said there were no “Chinese settlements” in the northern Lhuntse region, where CNN had identified the villages. “The map of Bhutan covering the northern border will be completed according to the demarcation of the border between Bhutan and China,” the ministry statement said.

To trust

Pointing to the border talks between the two countries, the ministry said that Bhutan is “hopeful that the northern border will be finalized soon.” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, is strongly denies that they are building near its neighbors. “China’s construction activities in the border area with Bhutan are aimed at improving local living conditions,” the ministry said.

“China and Bhutan have their own claims regarding the territorial status of the respective region, but both agree to resolve differences and disputes through friendly consultations and negotiations.”

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