Southern Tibet refers mainly to the southern side of the Himalayas, in the southeast corner of Tibet, the four counties of Metuo, Chayu, Cuona and Longzi, with a total area of about 90,000 square kilometers.
It stands to reason that all of this area is China's territory, but at present, of the 90,000 square kilometers, we only control about 29,000 square kilometers, and most of the remaining areas are pinched by India.
India illegally named the part they actually controlled as Arunachal Pradesh. After learning that the aborigines here and the Tibetans in China have basically the same culture and ethnicity, the Indian authorities were very worried, so they proposed a plan to emigrate millions. A large number of Indian people were transferred to settle here, and Indian culture was vigorously promoted here.
In order to gain international recognition, India has even turned southern Tibet into an international tourism demonstration zone, allowing a large number of foreigners to travel to southern Tibet, leading these foreigners to have a misunderstanding that this place is Indian.
In the long run, the question of the ownership of this place will become more and more difficult. So how did India expand its power in southern Tibet step by step in the decades ahead?
The birth process of the McMahon Line in southern Tibet
After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the new country of India was born. In the past, they had been British colonies and were part of British India.
After independence, since India acquired the vast majority of the territory and population of British India, they claimed to be the eldest sons of British India, claiming to be the direct heirs of British India.
Therefore, the Indian authorities believe that the colonizers are qualified to touch the territory invaded by them, including the Tibetan areas.
From the end of the 19th century, British India began to play with the idea of Tibet. In 1876, under British persecution, Li Zhongtang signed the Treaty of Yantai with the British, and the British were granted the privilege of entering Tibet.
Since then, British India has been planning to build roads into Tibet, and at the same time has bought off a large number of Tibetan nobles. In 1888, the British simply did not pretend and sent more than 500 people to attack Longtu Mountain, but more than 100 people were wiped out by the local defenders and suffered heavy losses. The British were not reconciled, and dispatched another 2,000 people, which took Longtu Mountain.
In 1890, the Qing Dynasty was forbidden to sign the Sino-British Treaty of Tibet-India with the British, which directly ceded Je Mengxiong, also known as Sikkim, to the British.
Beginning in 1883, Tsarist Russia also had the idea of getting involved in Tibetan areas, and in the name of helping Tibet resist the British, they sent many people into Tibet and began to bribe local nobles. After that, Tsarist Russia allowed Delzhi to infiltrate Tibet and persuade the local nobles to turn to Russia.
In 1903, more than 2,000 British troops entered Tibet again, and when the war situation was uncertain, they sent an additional 11,500 men from India, resulting in heavy losses for the Tibetan army.
Finally, after the British invaded Lhasa, local officials in the Tibetan area and the British signed the Treaty of Lhasa again in 1904, demanding that the Tibetan area pay 2.5 million rupees in compensation over 75 years, and open a series of treaty ports. However, the Minister in Tibet, Youtai, did not sign it, and the Qing court did not approve it, so the treaty was not legal.
It was not until 1906 that China and Britain signed a new treaty recognizing the Treaty of Lhasa, but only on the condition that Britain would not allow further invasions of Tibet and would not interfere in its internal affairs, but that no other country would be allowed to interfere in its affairs.
After that, until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty did not make concessions on the territorial issue of Tibet. Even during the Beiyang period, this did not change. However, in 1913, Britain conspired with the pro-British Tibetan official Xia Zha to illegally annex more than 90,000 square kilometers of land in southern Tibet to British India in exchange for British support for Tibetan independence.
In 1914, McMahon and Shaza signed the "Shimla Treaty", and the hidden dangers in southern Tibet were buried. Although the whole process was not recognized and signed by the Chinese authorities or even the top level in Tibetan areas, and the original copy of the "Simla Treaty" was actually destroyed by the British, it can be seen that its authenticity is doubtful, but India does not care about this.
India took advantage of the Korean War to illegally advance into southern Tibet
India, which prides itself on being the eldest son of British India, naturally inherits all the property left by his old father. But the Chinese authorities have repeatedly stated that the Simla Treaty is illegal and has no possibility of enforcement.
For this reason, India is also the head of the country, and in order to achieve its own goals, India has sent men and horses into the corner area since 1948, and even invaded Tawang in 1951.
The reason why this time was chosen, India has carefully planned. At that time, China's internal war was coming to an end, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea broke out immediately afterward.
Therefore, China has no time to deal with the problem of southern Tibet, and India has taken this opportunity to invade Tibetan areas on a large scale and illegally control large areas of territory in a vain attempt to achieve their dominance in southern Tibet.
From 1951 to 1953, India made a massive advance into southern Tibet, occupying almost all of the area south of the so-called McMahon Line.
By 1954, the two sides began to sit down and negotiate. Since we are all newly established countries and neighbors, we do not have a deep hatred for each other, so we all hope to solve the problem through negotiations. It would be best if the friendship between China and India could be maintained through negotiations.
However, in its attitude towards Tibet, India believes that China has only suzerainty over Tibet, not sovereignty. If India insists on this point for a long time, the two sides will not be able to reach an agreement at all.
1959年到1962年的前冲突
The two sides of the talks broke up unhappily, and the issue of southern Tibet was not resolved at the negotiating table. Beginning in 1959, India began to actively support the local slave owners in Tibetan areas, taking up arms and fighting to go it alone.
This incident had a great impact, leading to a rebellion by slave owners in Tibetan areas, and the Indian consulate in Lhasa even became a source of support for the rebellion. After the Chinese side finally quelled the rebellion, the Indian authorities put forward an illegal demand to transfer more than 90,000 square kilometers of southern Tibet to India.
Of course, the matter was rejected by the Chinese side, but India did not compromise, and they adopted a policy of advancement, not only constantly encroaching on the territory of the Chinese side, but also taking in the slave owners who had started a rebellion, and even causing many casualties among our border guards in August 1959.
The situation became uncontrollable at once, and India's Nehru clique simply did not pretend to be a showdown, and they planned to learn from their late father, British India, and openly sent a large number of troops to Tibet with a hegemonic attitude, set up 43 military bases, and were ready to invade the entire Tibetan area.
At the same time, Sino-Soviet relations were bad, and the Soviet Union did not hesitate to support India, but also wanted to stab China in the back, and they openly supported India on the international stage, which greatly increased India's confidence.
By September 1962, the Indian army had launched a large-scale offensive against Tibet. In this case, in order to maintain territorial sovereignty, we can only be forced to fight back.
It took only eight days for the Chinese army to clear out 37 Indian military strongholds in China, and then another five days to uproot all the remaining Indian military strongholds.
In the whole war, more than 8,700 Indian people were annihilated and captured, and a great victory was achieved. However, in order to restart negotiations, the Chinese side not only returned more than 3,900 Indian officers and soldiers who had been captured, but also voluntarily evacuated the disputed area.
Open guns are easy to dodge, but hidden arrows are difficult to defend
Nehru was completely stunned, and originally planned to restore the glory of the British Raj period by force, and elevate himself to the height of Napoleon in the East.
As a result, he suffered such a big defeat, and Nehru wilted after that? Not really. Because he found that although China had won the war, it did not recapture southern Tibet without permission, and stationed troops there.
Of course, the Chinese side hoped to resolve the disputed issues in the region through peaceful negotiations, but Nehru saw this as an opportunity for India to return to southern Tibet.
In the short term, India wants to seize this place by force, but there is basically no hope, as can be seen from the gap in combat power between the two sides. But they have another way, and that is to emigrate.
By continuing to migrate to southern Tibet and turning it into India's territory, it was India's new decision after the defeat to solve the problem in a subtle way.
India believes that if a million Indians settle here, it will have a head start even if negotiations resume in the future. Therefore, since then, immigration to southern Tibet has become the main policy of the Indian authorities.
Ostensibly, the Indian authorities began to actively support China's sovereignty over Tibetan areas, rather than suzerainty. However, on the issue of southern Tibet, they kept silent and did things in silence.
In addition to the immigrants, India has stationed 100,000 troops here, with the obvious intention that they will have nothing to fear in the event of a future war.
The support of the United States and Russia is India's confidence
Britain is no longer the British Empire of the past, and they cannot protect India after the partition of India and Pakistan, so who gave India such courage? Did Liang Jingru give it?
Of course not, naturally it was a superpower like the United States and the Soviet Union. Naturally, relations between the United States and India are not bad, and since the sixties of the 20th century, the Soviet Union has also begun to hand out olive branches to India.
The Soviet Union not only gave India a large amount of industrial aid, but also provided a large amount of weapons and equipment, so that the Indian army is still inseparable from Soviet-style weapons and Soviet-style training methods.
Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's support for India remained the same. Although Russia is not good economically, the military is forced by others, and once a new weapon is developed, they will be the first to equip India, which shows how iron the two sides are.
For example, in 2018, India spent $5.5 billion to purchase five S-400 air defense systems from Russia, three of which have been delivered. Who is this high-end weapon bought against? Is there any country around India that deserves so much attention?
It is reported that although we also bought the system, people are only willing to give the castrated version, while India buys the original version. The reason is that our ability to overtake in corners is too strong, and India does not have this ability.