Aksai Chin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aksai Chin (Simplified Chinese: 阿克赛钦; Traditional Chinese: 阿克賽欽; pinyin: Ākèsàiqīn, Hindi: अकसाई चिन) is a region located at the junction of China, Pakistan, and India. It is administered by China and claimed by India. Aksai Chin is one of the two main border disputes between India and China, the other being Arunachal Pradesh. Aksai Chin, which is in Uyghur language and literally means "Chin's desert of white stones," is a vast high altitude desert of salt at heights in the region of 5,000m. Geographically part of the Tibetan Plateau and the Chang Tang, Aksai Chin is referred to as the Soda Plain. The region is almost uninhabited and sees little precipitation due to the Himalayan and other mountains to the south soaking up the Indian monsoon.
Aksai Chin was historically part of the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh until Ladakh was annexed by Kashmir in the 19th century. It was subsequently absorbed into British India by the 1904 treaty between Tibet and British India which led to the Macmahon line demarcation agreed to by Tibet and India in the early decades of 20th century, China however after taking over Tibet refused to recognize the entire Macmahon line and all the treaties on boundary signed by Tibet. One of the main causes of the Sino-Indian War of 1962 was India's discovery of a road China had built through the region, which India considers its territory. The road China National Highway 219 connecting Tibet and Xinjiang, passes through no sizeable town in Aksai Chin, there are only some military posts and truck stop places as (the very small) Tianshuihai (4850m) or Dahongliutian (4200m, see external Link below). The area is strategically important to China because of this road.
Aksai Chin is currently under the administration of the People's Republic of China, with the vast majority of it as a part of Hotan County, in the primarily Muslim Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, to which it was transferred by China from Tibet. What little data that exists suggests the few true locals in Aksai Chin tend to have Buddhist beliefs, though some Muslim Uyghurs may also live in the area due to the trade between Tibet and Xinjiang.
India also claims the area as a part of Ladakh district of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Both sides in the dispute have agreed to respect the Line of Actual Control and this dispute is considered very unlikely to result in actual hostilities.
Pakistan has a claim on Kashmir which may also imply a claim to the Aksai Chin, however border agreements between Pakistan and the China in 1963 which transferred the Trans-Karakoram Tract and 1987 suggest that Pakistan may recognize China's claims on the areas. No Pakistani Government has ever officially claimed this region, and governments have given tacit approval of China considering this area as a part of China.
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[edit] Current events
In June 2006, satellite imagery on the Google Earth service revealed[1] a 500:1 scale terrain model [1] of eastern Aksai Chin and adjacent Tibet, built near the town of Huangyangtan, about 35 kilometres South West of Yinchuan, the capital of the autonomous region of Ningxia in China. The 900m x 700m model was surrounded by substantial facility, with rows of red-roofed buildings, scores of olive-colored trucks and a large compound with elevated lookout posts and a large communications tower. Since terrain models are known to be used in military training and simulation (although usually on a much smaller scale), several theories emerged regarding the purpose of the model, including usage as
- a model for walk-through terrain visualization exercise in pilot training
- a navigation/gunnery training area for unmanned aerial vehicles that drop small flour or paint bombs in an exercise to simulate trajectories and dispersal patterns
- a model to study dispersal patterns of chemical or biological weapons
- a tank training facility, although this seems unlikely, since the actual land that the model represents is on a plateau 5000 metres above sea level, making tank warfare difficult if not impossible
Additionally, the model was rumored to be used for simulating water catchment areas of China's major river systems in climatology research.
It was later confirmed with local authority that this is a tank training ground that was built seven or eight years ago with nothing to do with Aksai Chin. [2]
[edit] See also
- Kashmir
- Indo-China War Kashmir
- Trans-Karakoram Tract an area of Kashmir administered by China
- Kashmir conflict
- Indian Kashmir barrier
- Kashmiriyat - a socio-cultural ethos of religious harmony and Kashmiri consciousness.
- List of topics on the land and the people of “Jammu and Kashmir”
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Facing the truth Pakistan has solved its border problem with China, but India is caught in a prolonged dispute.
- The Great China-India Game An informative history of the always-ambiguous China-India border in Aksai Chin.
- Detailed satellite image of Dahonglutian, the largest truck stop place in Aksai Chin
- Conflict in Kashmir: Selected Internet Resources by the Library, University of California, Berkeley, USA; University of California, Berkeley Library Bibliographies and Web-Bibliographies list
- Satellite image of large scale terrain model of Aksai Chin
- Diagram explaining the situation
- Photos from Google Earth
| Territorial disputes in East and South Asia | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Territory | Currently Administered by | Claimants | |
| Land: | Aksai Chin |  |
  2 |
|
| Arunachal Pradesh | |
2 |
||
| Assam | |
 1 |
||
| East Turkestan | |
 1 2 |
||
| Indo-Bangladesh enclaves3 |  |
|
||
| Kashmir3 |  |
|
||
| Kachin State |  |
 1 2 |
||
| Kayin State | |
 1 |
||
| Korean Peninsula3 |   |
|
||
| Mainland China2 | |
|
||
| Mongolia2 |  |
|
||
| Pattani |  |
 1 |
||
| Sabah |  |
 |
||
| Shan State | |
 1 |
||
| Tibet | |
 1 2 |
||
| Trans-Karakoram Tract | |
|
||
| Wa State | |
 1 |
||
| Islands and Waters: | Dokdo | |
 |
|
| Kinmen | |
|
||
| Macclesfield Bank |  |
|||
| Matsu | |
|
||
| Paracel Islands | |
|
||
| Pedra Branca |  |
|
||
| Pratas Islands | |
|
||
| Senkaku Islands | |
|
||
| Sir Creek3 | |
|
||
| Socotra Rock | |
|
||
| Southern Kuril Islands |  |
|
||
| Spratly Islands3 | |
 |
||
| Taiwan | |
|
||
| Notes: | 1Government in exile/exiled group. 2Inactive dispute. 3Divided among multiple claimants. |
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