Articles By Claude Arpi

Why clear demarcation of LAC is a prerequisite to ensure India and China...
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 23 Dec , 2022
It is important to understand how the northern border of India has been delineated. From the end of the 19th century, the main factor for fixing a boundary in the Himalaya, in particular with...
Indianness of Arunachal is not to be proven to anyone: Pema Khandu
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 15 Dec , 2022
This is the second part of my interview with Pema Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Indianness of Arunachal is not to be proven to anyone. ‘Our love for our great nation — Bharat is...

Changing Ladakh
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 22 Nov , 2022
I still remember my first visit in 2002. There were hardly any roads outside Leh and the approach from Manali in Himachal Pradesh or Zoji-la in Jammu and Kashmir was not an easy one; only a few...

The Heroes Who Saved Ladakh For India
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 18 Nov , 2022
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to interview one of the most renowned Indian mountaineers, who had chosen to live like local folks in the Himalaya. She recounted an anecdote which took...

The Unsung Heroes of the 1962 War
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 15 Nov , 2022
For the Indian nation, the 1962 conflict with China is one of the most traumatic post-Independence Indian events; for those who fought, for their families and for the Indian Army in general, the...

Had India employed its Air Force in 1962, there would have been fewer casualties
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 19 Oct , 2022
In July 2017, a few weeks after the start of the confrontation in Doklam near the India-China-Bhutan trijunction, Lt Gen Zhang Xuejie, the then Political Commissar of the Tibet Military Region...

Nehru and the ‘pending’ case of Tibet in United Nations
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 16 Oct , 2022
On September 30, Russia held four referenda with the objective of annexing Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine recently occupied by Moscow; it immediately draw strong...

Chinese Panchen Lama visits an 'Indian' Village
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 26 Jul , 2022
On July 22, China Tibet Network posted an article announcing that the Chinese-selected Panchen Lama (Gyaltsen Norbu) visited a village on the Indian border: “Panchen: Guarding the border is a...

Season of Coincidences and Change
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 18 Jul , 2022
Do you believe in coincidences? Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama reached Ladakh on July 15. Two days later, the 16th round of Corps Commander-level meeting between India and China is to be held...

Double Standards with Chinese Characteristics
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 25 Jun , 2022
June 15 is a special day in the Middle Kingdom; it is the birthday of the Secretary General of the Communist Party of China. In 2020, probably wanting to please China’s new emperor, an officer...

Xi Jinping will lead China for record third time, but is much weaker than we...
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 11 May , 2022
The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will be held in Beijing in November this year. About 2,300 delegates, representing an estimated 90 million members, will meet in the...

Where is China Going?
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 03 Mar , 2022
Soon the Games are over. The Emperor of China, Xi Jinping, with his colleagues of the Politburo, had planned a grand show to prove to the world that the Middle Kingdom was one of the two most...

China shifts into propaganda overdrive in pandemic era but world is...
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 06 Jan , 2022
Can we today take Chinese propaganda seriously? I don’t think so. Take the issue of democracy. On 9-10 December 2021, US President Joe Biden organised a ‘Summit for Democracy’, bringing together...

1971 War: When world woke up to Pakistani terror and India’s endeavour to...
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 23 Dec , 2021
“Bangladesh Bangladesh, When the Sun Sinks in the West” my generation still remembers the crystal-clear voice of Joan Baez, the youth icon of the ‘flower generation’, supporting an action...

US wanted China to intervene against India in 1971 War
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 18 Dec , 2021
Rarely the birth of a new country became an event observed by the entire planet; it has happened for Bangladesh. Soon after the Pakistani army crackdown on sleeping unarmed Bengali students at...

'We are well prepared for any eventualities'
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 18 Nov , 2021
The first part of my interview with Pema Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh ‘We are well prepared for any eventualities’. In April 2011, Dorjee Khandu, the chief minister of Arunachal...

The Phantoms of Chittagong: The Unsung Tibetan Heroes of the 1971 Bangladesh...
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 10 Nov , 2021
On 50th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh, we need to recall one of the best-kept secrets of the war: The role played by the Special Frontier Force, a highly trained Tibetan regiment...

Dragon Flaunts ‘Firepower’ across LAC to ward off Growing Internal...
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 23 Oct , 2021
What is going on in China? One thing is sure that the Middle Kingdom is going through turbulent times, to say the least. One just needs to look at the 13th round of the India-China Corps Commander...

Stop China from Erasing ‘The Heart of the World’
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 14 Oct , 2021
Have you heard of the “Hidden Land of Pemako”? It is the area where China is planning to build mega hydropower stations in the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) during its...

Who were the Mysterious ‘Tibetan 419 Troops’ in 1962?
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol. 36.3, Jul-Sep 2021 | Date: 13 Oct , 2021
China always speaks of the 1962 War against India as a ‘Self-Defence Counter-Attack’. In this context, the setting up of the Z-419 Force was a turning point in the unfolding confrontation...