Aksai Chin has been mostly controlled by China since the border war in the 60s andd following skirmishes but India has pushed pretty far over the decades. China's attention has mostly been elsewhere during those decades and this stretch truly was useless and unimportant until BRI strategy and India's meddling re. Bhutan and Kashmir came into play after 2010.
Aksai China and old borders go well behind finger 4 and in many ways India is WELL inside Chinese territory and has salami sliced effectively for many decades. I think since the dramatics of the last decade, China has eventually realised all of this and the land is of some strategic importance. India threatening the future of Kashmiri independence and BRI routes through these parts started worrying China.
So Kakyan you are right in the historic context of India being well inside Chinese territory. But those patrol points allowed by both sides up to this year should be chalked up to CCP's complacency and China's focusing of efforts elsewhere. It appears it no longer is the case and China's unilaterally shoved the Indians back to at least Finger 4 and PP13/14 positions which are still not the entirety of the claims and what China thinks it won after the border war. The CCP for both stupid and commendably wise decisions, simply acted rather magnanimously after that border war. Yeah it was a combination of not wanting to get the superpowers involved and not wanting to escalate with India where even an eventual Chinese victory would certainly not be worth the price paid in blood, resources, money, and goodwill. By leaving all borders still ambiguous, India China relations didn't totally disintegrate into what would surely have been at least as bad as Pakistan India relations.
But viewing all this from 2000s to 2019 perspectives, PLA has rather successfully achieved the desired military objectives and the CCP has so far achieved political objectives of not letting this get out of hand while still dismantling a lot of the Indian threat to BRI and making the statement to India that its past salami slicing can be reversed as easily as it was from PP13/14 to Finger 4. Sure there is still a lot of Chinese territory that is either still disputed or taken by India but again, it pays to push sometimes and it pays to slow down before prices are simply not worth the gains. This seems to be a good middle ground as all the evidence proves - both sides staying non-lethal, Chinese objectives achieved and India has not and hopefully will not take back, BRI routes more secured than if India was allowed to control all those territories and continue salami slicing until the message is sent.
Aksai China and old borders go well behind finger 4 and in many ways India is WELL inside Chinese territory and has salami sliced effectively for many decades. I think since the dramatics of the last decade, China has eventually realised all of this and the land is of some strategic importance. India threatening the future of Kashmiri independence and BRI routes through these parts started worrying China.
So Kakyan you are right in the historic context of India being well inside Chinese territory. But those patrol points allowed by both sides up to this year should be chalked up to CCP's complacency and China's focusing of efforts elsewhere. It appears it no longer is the case and China's unilaterally shoved the Indians back to at least Finger 4 and PP13/14 positions which are still not the entirety of the claims and what China thinks it won after the border war. The CCP for both stupid and commendably wise decisions, simply acted rather magnanimously after that border war. Yeah it was a combination of not wanting to get the superpowers involved and not wanting to escalate with India where even an eventual Chinese victory would certainly not be worth the price paid in blood, resources, money, and goodwill. By leaving all borders still ambiguous, India China relations didn't totally disintegrate into what would surely have been at least as bad as Pakistan India relations.
But viewing all this from 2000s to 2019 perspectives, PLA has rather successfully achieved the desired military objectives and the CCP has so far achieved political objectives of not letting this get out of hand while still dismantling a lot of the Indian threat to BRI and making the statement to India that its past salami slicing can be reversed as easily as it was from PP13/14 to Finger 4. Sure there is still a lot of Chinese territory that is either still disputed or taken by India but again, it pays to push sometimes and it pays to slow down before prices are simply not worth the gains. This seems to be a good middle ground as all the evidence proves - both sides staying non-lethal, Chinese objectives achieved and India has not and hopefully will not take back, BRI routes more secured than if India was allowed to control all those territories and continue salami slicing until the message is sent.
