Special lecture by Maj Gen PJS Sandhu on topic “China’s Approach to Boundary Dispute in Relation to International Law”

Chandigarh, August 29, 2019: The Department of Defence and National Security Studies, Panjab University organized a Special Lecture by Maj Gen PJS Sandhu on the topic “China’s Approach to Boundary Dispute in Relation to International Law” in the department premises. Maj Gen PJS Sandhu is presently working as Director of “Gyan Chakra” a think tank established with the support of Army’s Western Command. He started the lecture on emphasizing the importance of the border that “Borders are not only the lines on the maps, they address the important questions like of territory and sovereignty of a nation-state”. Countries of Europe fight over 500 years of wars over the issues of boundary and sovereignty. Eventually they settled the boundary disputes by coming together and forming the European union. While the third world countries are still grappling with disputes arising from the boundary questions. On coming to his main thrust area of lecture, he said that China emerged as communist state in 1949. Since its emergence as a communist country, it rejected most of formal delimitation treaties signed before the communist rule that period they regarded as the century of humiliation at the hand of imperialist powers. They raised historical claims for territory around its borders like of Tibet, South China Sea, Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in East China Sea and Arunachal Pradesh in India. He pointed out that China share land border with fourteen countries though it has settled boundary disputes with twelve of those but border question remained unresolved with India and Bhutan. He also explained the maritime border issues created by Nine-Dash line of Chinese claims in the South China sea, which remain bone of contention and confrontation among the countries in that region. He said China adopts selective approach in line with its national interests to resolve the border disputes with its neighboring countries. It accepted old treaties in case of border settlement with Mongolia, North Korea and Russia erstwhile USSR while rejected in case of India and Bhutan. It disregarded completely the international norms in the South China Sea and termed it imperialist relics, while raising its historical claims. He categorically said that China comes to negotiating table with strong position. While concluding the lecture, he pointed out that India-China border issue is directly linked to Tibetan question. Till the Tibetan question is not settled, India-China border will not be resolved. China adopts flexible and pragmatic approach to settle border issues to serve its national interests. It will wait till it finds India in position of weakness, which seems unlikely due to India’s growth forecast. It will further depend upon the domestic and external political situations of China. Though new push is given to the issue of border resolution by the majority government of NDA and appointment of Subramanyam Jaishankar as foreign minister. It also reflected in statement of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the recent visit of Indian External affair minister Subramanyam Jaishankarthat China is looking for “early harvest”in border negotiation. The lecture was attended by faculties members, serving and retired armed forces officers, research scholars and students of the department.