Aksai Chin

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Aksai Chin (Simplified Chinese: 阿克赛钦; Traditional Chinese: 阿克賽欽; pinyin: Ākèsàiqīn, Hindi: अकसाई चिन) is a region located at the junction of the People's Republic of China, Pakistan, and India. It is administered by China and claimed by India. Aksai Chin is one of the two main border disputes between India and China, the other being Arunachal Pradesh. Aksai Chin (which is in Uyghur language and literally means "Chin's desert of white stones", "Chin" referring to Qing Dynasty of China) is a vast high altitude desert of salt at heights in the region of 5,000m. Geographically part of the Tibetan Plateau and the Chang Tang, Aksai Chin is referred to as the Soda Plain. The region is almost uninhabited and sees little precipitation due to the Himalayan and other mountains to the south soaking up the Indian monsoon.

Aksai Chin was historically part of the Himalayan Kingdom of Ladakh until Ladakh was annexed by Kashmir in the 19th century. It was subsequently absorbed into British India and its current disputed status can be traced back to the Kashmir dispute (and rival claims to Kashmir) between India and Pakistan. One of the main causes of the Sino-Indian War of 1962 was India's discovery of a road China had built through the region, which India considers its territory. The road China National Highway 219 connecting Tibet and Xinjiang, passes through no sizeable town in Aksai Chin, there are only some military posts and truck stop places as (the very small) Tianshuihai (4850m) or Dahongliutian (4200m, see external Link below). The area is strategically important to China because of this road.

Aksai Chin is currently under the administration of the People's Republic of China, with the vast majority of it as a part of Hotan County, in the primarily Muslim Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. What little data that exists suggests the few true locals in Aksai Chin tend to have Buddhist beliefs, though some Muslim Uyghurs may also live in the area due to the trade between Tibet and Xinjiang.

India also claims the area as a part of Ladakh district of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Both sides in the dispute have agreed to respect the Line of Actual Control and this dispute is considered very unlikely to result in actual hostilities.

Pakistan has a claim on Kashmir which may also imply a claim to the Aksai Chin, however border agreements between Pakistan and the PRC in 1963 which transferred the Trans-Karakoram Tract and 1987 suggest that Pakistan may recognize PRC claims on the areas. No Pakistani Government has ever officially claimed this region, and governments have given tacit approval of the PRC considering this area as a part of China.

1 Current events
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Current events

In June 2006, satellite imagery on the Google Earth service revealed<ref>Google Earth Community posting, 29 June, 2006</ref> a 500:1 scale terrain model [1] of eastern Aksai Chin and adjacent Tibet, built near the town of Huangyangtan, about 35 kilometres South West of Yinchuan, the capital of the autonomous region of Ningxia in China. The 900m x 700m model was surrounded by substantial facility, with rows of red-roofed buildings, scores of olive-colored trucks and a large compound with elevated lookout posts and a large communications tower. Since terrain models are known to be used in military training and simulation (although usually on a much smaller scale), several theories emerged regarding the purpose of the model, including usage as

a model for walk-through terrain visualization exercise in pilot training

a navigation/gunnery training area for unmanned aerial vehicles that drop small flour or paint bombs in an exercise to simulate trajectories and dispersal patterns

a model to study dispersal patterns of chemical or biological weapons

a tank training facility, although this seems unlikely, since the actual land that the model represents is on a plateau 5000 metres above sea level, making tank warfare difficult if not impossible

Additionally, the model was rumored to be used either for simulating catchment areas of China's major river systems in climatology research.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Facing the truth Pakistan has solved its border problem with China, but India is caught in a prolonged dispute.
The Great China-India Game An informative history of the always-ambiguous China-India border in Aksai Chin.