Territorial Overreach |
The detention of Pema Wangjom Thongdok at the Shanghai airport is not an isolated bureaucratic anomaly; it is a reminder that India’s most intractable territorial dispute has begun to intrude into civilian life in ways that should worry both New Delhi and Beijing. What should have been a routine transit stop on an intercontinental journey instead turned into an 18-hour confrontation over the geopolitical status of her birthplace, Arunachal Pradesh.
In the coarse behaviour she describes and the official justification that followed, one can see a small but telling expression of a larger strategic posture. Beijing’s line is familiar: Arunachal Pradesh does not exist, only “South Tibet” does. For decades this claim operated largely at the level of diplomatic statements, maps, and military deployments. But in recent years, it has migrated into administrative practice ~ through the issuance of “stapled visas,” renaming of Indian villages, and........