Bhutan is the last standing Buddhist Kingdom in the world. It has one of the fastest growing economies and is consistently ranked as the happiest country in Asia. It is a small country with a remarkable past and present, but its future is threatened by the aggression of neighboring China.
China’s 1951 annexation of Tibet brought Beijing closer to Bhutan’s doorstep than ever before, and successive Chinese administrations have since laid ever-expanding claims on areas integral to the kingdom’s historic and strategic territory. Unlike neighboring Tibet, Bhutan has no history of being under China’s suzerainty, nor that of the former British Raj in India. Before 1959, there were pre-existing pockets of disputed land between Tibet and its smaller neighbor, but nothing that—in part due to both territories’ strong historical and cultural ties—was not handled amicably.
China’s advance, however, has accompanied an increase in high stakes clashes such as the 72-day border standoff in 2017, in which Indian troops stopped their Chinese counterparts from constructing a road through Bhutan’s 14,000 ft Doklam Plateau. If completed, this passage would facilitate Chinese military access to the Siliguri corridor and thus India’s resource-rich northeastern states. For obvious reasons, it is in the U.S. and Indian interests to prevent a Bhutan-China settlement that would cede this strategic zone to the latter. The opening of a U.S. embassy in Thimphu, and a continuation of its commitments to India will be crucial steps toward this.
Although China also maintains no embassy in or official diplomatic relations with Bhutan, protracted negotiations and parlays over border arrangements have dragged out between the two governments for four decades. Beijing is deliberately prolonging these discussions, while it steadily improves its situation on the ground. In December 2020, satellite footage revealed the Chinese military’s construction of an entire village in the Doklam Plateau area. Other areas of Western Bhutan have also been gradually encroached upon by China to secure access to the Indian frontier and sure up supply chains in the event of war. China’s claims have now expanded to include areas of Central and Eastern Bhutan, where since June 2020 China has claimed the 650 sq km Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary.
In a 1996 United States Institute of Peace report on territorial disputes in the South China Sea, analysts pointed to such actions as “so-called ‘salami tactics,’ in which China tests the other claimants through aggressive actions, then backs off when it meets significant resistance.” These tactics have been seen throughout the last three decades, including more recently in the South China Sea. Through consistent and repeated incursions, such as those now active in Bhutan, China is able to hold rivals militarily hostage, meanwhile shifting international vocabulary regarding frontier zones to those of “disputed” territories. The voice of the international community at the United Nations and elsewhere, then begins to take for granted that China has a legitimate, if unsettled, claim, even in cases where there is no legal or historic precedence to support it—such as Bhutan.
Source: nationalinterest.org
BDST: 2044 HRS, APR 04, 2021
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