India protests after China publicizes new counties in Aksai Chin area

India on Friday (January 3) rejected China’s creation of two new counties within the illegally occupied Aksai Chin area and registered its protest.

Final week, China introduced two new counties within the Xinjiang province that borders India — the identical province the place China has forcibly detained thousands and thousands of native Uighurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic minority in China, in internment camps the place the United Nations (UN) has indicted China of crimes in opposition to humanity.

These two counties, He’an County and Hekang County within the Hotan prefecture, cowl elements of Aksai China, the a part of Ladakh union territory that has been illegally occupied by China since Fifties.

At a daily press convention, Ministry of Exterior Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal rejected the creation of those two counties and stated that as India has by no means accepted China’s unlawful occupation of Indian territories, it doesn’t settle for the creation of those two counties as effectively.

Jaiswal stated, “Elements of the jurisdiction of those so-called counties fall in India’s Union Territory of Ladakh. We’ve by no means accepted the unlawful Chinese language occupation of Indian territory on this space. The creation of latest counties will neither have a bearing on India’s long-standing and constant place concerning our sovereignty over the world nor lend legitimacy to China’s unlawful and forcible occupation of the identical.”

Jaiswal additional stated that India has registered a “solemn protest” with China via diplomatic channels within the matter.

Final month, China’s Xinjiang province, with the approval of Beijing, created two new counties, He’an and Hekang, throughout the Hotan prefecture with their seats at Hongliu Township and Xeyidula Township, in response to state-run Xinhua information company.

The creation of those two counties is the newest act of ‘cartographic aggression’ by China. Notably, the transfer comes at a time when India and China are working to fix the ties worsened by Chinese language incursions in 2020 that triggered a army stand-off in Ladakh that has not but been absolutely resolved. The Chinese language actions in 2020, together with the clashes Chinese language actions triggered in Galwan Valley that killed 20 Indian troopers, plunged the bilateral relationship to its worst since 1962 when China’s invaded India in an act of unprovoked battle.