Indian PM visit to southern Tibet sparks China's ire

• Source: Global Times
• [03:12 October 14 2009]
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About 96 percent of the over 6,000 respondents agreed that they felt agitated by the frequent visits by Indian leaders to the disputed area, while about 2 percent disagreed and 2 percent said they didn't care.

Ma Jiali, a senior researcher on South Asia at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times that Singh, as a head of government, sets bad precedents with his visit.

"The repeated visits by Indian leaders can make others believe the area is part of India and solidify the existing strategies they have applied to control the area, such as using administrative jurisdiction in the area and courting sympathy from the international community," Ma said.

China and India share a long border spanning more than 4,000 kilometers, with about 125,000 square kilometers of disputed territory.

On its western end is the Aksai Chin region, an area the size of Switzerland that sits between the Chinese autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet. The eastern border, between Myanmar and Bhutan, comprises the southern Tibet area.

The two countries fought a brief but bloody border war, partly over southern Tibet, in 1962, and while trade between the two has since flourished, the border disputes have never been resolved. Mistrust remains close below the surface and appears to have resurfaced in recent months.

Agencies contributed to this story