Articles By Claude Arpi

Jawaharlal: did he want Tawang or not?

Jawaharlal: did he want Tawang or not?

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 01 Apr , 2016

I republish this article on Maj Bob Khathing, one of the most illustrious sons of the Assam Rifles. Without his skills and his intelligence of the area, Tawang would perhaps be Chinese...

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Rafale Fighter Jet: Deal, No Deal?

Rafale Fighter Jet: Deal, No Deal?

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 21 Mar , 2016

During the recently conducted Indian Air Force drill (‘Iron Fist Exercise 2016’) in Pokhran, Rajasthan, attended by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Air Chief Marshal...

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When Dalai Lama was to fly from Lhasa to India

When Dalai Lama was to fly from Lhasa to India

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 23 Feb , 2016

An episode, not very not well-known, was the possibility to ‘evacuate’ the Dalai Lama from Lhasa soon after the Chinese troops crossed the Upper Yangtze river and entered Chamdo in 1950. S.N....

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The Sichuan-Tibet rail-line on the way

The Sichuan-Tibet rail-line on the way

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 05 Feb , 2016

The China Daily reported that the construction of a 1,629-kilometer Sichuan-Tibet railway will start in 2016. Lobsang Gyaltsen, the Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government...

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Rafales or not Rafales

Rafales or not Rafales

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 27 Jan , 2016

How to assess the State Visit of a foreign dignitary? After following for 2 days the visit of President Francois Hollande of France in Delhi earlier this week, it was the question I asked...

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Hollande's Visit: The Security Angle

Hollande's Visit: The Security Angle

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 20 Jan , 2016

The French have recently rediscovered their old Gaulish belligerent genes. The list of France’s present military intervention outside its territory is long and the locations spread over two...

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Tibet ...with Chinese Characteristics

Tibet ...with Chinese Characteristics

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 18 Jan , 2016

A few weeks ago, The New York Times published a stunning photo feature on a horse festival held in the Batang Grasslands, near Jyekundo in Eastern Tibet (today Qinghai province of China). Yushu,...

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When Nehru was taken for a ride by Mao

When Nehru was taken for a ride by Mao

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 10 Jan , 2016

One often-asked question is: why did India not take a stronger stand on the Tibet issue in October/November 1950, when Eastern Tibet was invaded by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army? One of...

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China’s PLA sings Jai Ho as India goes for Border Defence

China’s PLA sings Jai Ho as India goes for Border Defence

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 08 Jan , 2016

On New Year day, a Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) between India and China was held in a Chinese hut near a place called Damai, north of the Lohit sector of Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian delegation...

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China’s New War over Internet

China’s New War over Internet

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 23 Dec , 2015

Beijing irredentism is not restricted to the China Seas, Beijing also wants to be the leader in cyberspace and impose its own law. President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech at the World Internet...

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A Soldier with Two Wives

A Soldier with Two Wives

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 14 Dec , 2015

Lakshman Singh, a slim young captain had two wives when, in May 1962, he was told to join the ill-fated 7 Infantry Brigade on the Namkha chu (river) of the then North East Frontier Agency (NEFA);...

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Occupy Chumbi Valley: A Top Secret Cable from Harishwar Dayal

Occupy Chumbi Valley: A Top Secret Cable from Harishwar Dayal

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 13 Dec , 2015

On November 21, 1950, hardly a month after the People’s Liberation Army had invaded Tibet and occupied the town of Chamdo, the Political Officer in Sikkim, Harishwar Dayal send a Top Secret cable...

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Know yourself, know your Enemy

Know yourself, know your Enemy

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 08 Dec , 2015

It was probably in late 1963. A senior Indian Army officer, just released from a PoW camp in Tibet where he had spent 7 months in dreadful conditions, went to Grindlays Bank on Connaught Place in...

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Why Mao attacked India in 1962

Why Mao attacked India in 1962

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Vol. 26.3 July - Sept 2011 | Date: 06 Dec , 2015

There is an angle of the 1962 Sino-Indian that conflict has been insufficiently studied. What were Beijing’s motivations to go to war? Who decided to inflict the worst possible humiliation on...

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Reforms in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)

Reforms in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 04 Dec , 2015

According to the new reforms recently announced by President Xi Jinping, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) should soon be out of business. Under the new rules, ‘PLA Inc’ will stop its song...

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Tibet is passing through one of the most difficult times in her history

Tibet is passing through one of the most difficult times in her history

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 02 Dec , 2015

In India and Tibet Ancient Ties – Current Bonds (A pictorial exhibition on the relations between India and Tibet through the ages), I tried to depict the age-old relations between India and...

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What is ‘terror’ for China?

What is ‘terror’ for China?

By: Claude Arpi | Date: 24 Nov , 2015

China does not seem to have the same definition of the word ‘terrorism’ than India and the rest of the world.  It was obvious when a 26-member delegation of the People’s Liberation Army...

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A rare letter from the Dalai Lama to Jawaharlal Nehru

A rare letter from the Dalai Lama to Jawaharlal Nehru

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 23 Nov , 2015

A very rare document, the translation of a letter sent by the Dalai Lama to the Prime Minister of India on March 26, 1959. The letter is written from Lhuntse Dzong in Southern Tibet where the...

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Are Tibetan terrorists? Yes, says China

Are Tibetan terrorists? Yes, says China

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 19 Nov , 2015

A 26-member delegation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) headed by General Fan Changlong, Vice-Chairman of China’s powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) visited in New Delhi this...

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China is ready

China is ready

By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 17 Nov , 2015

According to The China Daily, many border areas in China have deployed “an integrated frontier monitoring system consisting of advanced radars and unmanned aircraft”. Mao Weichen, a...

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