Articles By Claude Arpi
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...
Fan Changlong is coming to India
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 03 Nov , 2015
During the month of November, India will receive two important visitors from China; both are members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. …the PLA spokesman...
Big Changes in the People’s Liberation Army?
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 27 Oct , 2015
A few weeks ago, The South China Morning Post had reported the possibility of sweeping reforms in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). One of these changes could be the phasing out of...
The sorry state of India’s Borders
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 24 Oct , 2015
Sometimes, though it is rare, one reads some good news in the national press. One of these refreshing items, for me at least, was the visit of the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren...
Xinjiang : The Thorn in China’s Might
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 13 Oct , 2015
The dust had hardly settled down on the Potala Square in Lhasa where the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) were held, that...
Nepali-Chini Bhai Bhai
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 06 Oct , 2015
Nepalese Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay asked India not to ‘push it to the wall’ by blocking petroleum and other essential supplies, otherwise the landlocked country would have to...
China 'intervention' during the 1965 conflict
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 25 Sep , 2015
Analysts celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan conflict. In this connection, I am posting 4 Appendixes published by the Ministry Of External Affairs in the Notes, Memoranda And...
India China LAC face-Off – Analysis
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 23 Sep , 2015
After a swift victory, Julius Caesar is said to have bragged in the Roman Senate: “Vini, Vidi, Vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered). These historic words need to be adapted for the recent...
Chinese Incursions: 60 years ago
By: Claude Arpi | Date: 21 Sep , 2015
Following the recent Chinese incursion in Burtse in Ladakh and the quick ‘answer’ from the Indian forces who dismantled the structure built by the Chinese, it is interesting to look at what...
Chinese troops intrude in Ladakh: a coincidence?
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 16 Sep , 2015
Was it a coincidence? Just the day before the new stand-off between the Indian and Chinese defence forces in Ladakh started, a senior member of the Chinese Central Military Commission visited the...
A mighty 'peaceful' China and the Indian border
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 08 Sep , 2015
Soon after the mega Parade was over, the blue sky disappeared again over the Tiananmen Square; pollution returned to the Chinese capital, so did President Xi Jinping’s headaches. Xi will have to...
PLA: new radars on the Roof of the World
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 25 Aug , 2015
On August 24, The People’s Daily Online reported that three more unattended radars were soon to be installed in Tibet. The mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party reminds us that China’s...
The border is fixed: The Simla Conference
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Book Excerpt: 1962 and the McMahon Line Saga | Date: 17 Aug , 2015
In 1913, war in Europe appeared imminent for the British; they finally realized that the treaties regarding Tibet signed with China (and Russia) had no relevance as they could not be implemented...
China is a peaceful country, but…
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 14 Aug , 2015
China is a peaceful country: it is at least what Beijing likes to say. In June, Beijing reiterated its ‘peaceful’ doctrine in a White Paper (WP) on ‘China’s military strategy’, which...
China: Opening a New Front in the Pacific
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 07 Aug , 2015
A few years ago, I had interviewed the MP from Ladakh. He had explained to me the various tactics used by the Chinese PLA to intrude into Indian territory in his mountainous region. Sending...
The Panchsheel Agreement
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Book Excerpt: Tibet - The Lost Frontier | Date: 05 Aug , 2015
The “Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet region of China and India” was signed on 29th April 1954 in Beijing by the Indian Ambassador N. Raghavan and Chang Han-fu, the Chinese...
The New Strategic Importance of Tibet?
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 29 Jul , 2015
It is very rare for China to mention the ‘strategic importance of Tibet’, but it is what an article posted on the portal China Tibet Online recently did. One of the reasons is the...
The Years of Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Book Excerpt: Tibet - The Lost Frontier | Date: 03 Jul , 2015
Zhou’s First Visit to Delhi During the years following the signing of the Panchsheel Agreement, Delhi continued its efforts to champion the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa. The...
Nathu La to Kailash: Trip down the memory lane
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: www.niticentral.com | Date: 30 Jun , 2015
Once upon a time, not far from Nathu-la, the pass situated at 4,310 metres above sea level between Sikkim and Tibet, India had a stunning Trade Agency in Yatung in Tibet. This came back to mind...
Where is the LAC?
By: Claude Arpi | Issue: Courtesy: http://claudearpi.blogspot.in/ | Date: 22 Jun , 2015
Once again, the LAC or Line of Actual Control has recently come in the news. The latest mention came from Beijing, where China turned down an Indian proposal to exchange maps of the LAC; a move...