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Border ‘Concerns’

Through a new land border law, Beijing is determined to resolve border disputes on its preferred terms. The law seeks that China will defend territorial sovereignty and land border security while continuing to settle disputes through negotiations.

By Salis Malik | December 2021


As China adopted its new “land border law” on October 23, contentions between New Delhi and Beijing escalated. The law passed by the Chinese government entails the country’s patrolling activities along its borders of 22,100 km between 14 neighbouring countries. The law ensures that China will safeguard its territorial integrity and international security. With the Indian media dubbing the law as “concerning” for Indian sovereignty, the government in New Delhi has been raising eyebrows as well. There is a need to understand the mechanics behind the legislation.

In essence, the law forms watertight control over the borders by utilizing the Central Military Commission to deal with insurgent groups and safeguard land borders by effectively curbing separatism, armed invasions and terrorism. The law also involves helping civilian institutions for protecting the borders, thus forming an amalgamation of Civil-Military cooperation for upholding Chinese sovereignty. The law also encompasses a set of conditions on when to completely shut down the land border which includes the break out of a war or an armed conflict; if the border is threatened by a natural disaster, there is outbreak of a disease or there is occurrence of any other incident that could pose a threat to Chinese sovereignty.

Unlike the Chinese “coast guard law”, which is a bid to solidify China’s maritime security, the land border law seems rather sudden. This has largely to do with the Indo-China impasse in recent years. Before this, China had a very stable land border, with most of its disputes being resolved by early 2000s. After recent confrontations with India, China has taken appropriate measures to protect its borders. Another reason for this law can be the blow China received during the Covid-19 pandemic by having a highly “permeable”. As inter-border transmission of the Coronavirus was particularly high, a need for a devised border plan was deemed necessary in order to contain a breakout of the disease by effective border control. Geographically speaking, strengthening border laws was also imperative with a looming threat from international terrorism. The aftermath of the political fiasco caused in Afghanistan has left the Chinese government in a limbo, with the likely probability of targeted terrorism through the Central Asian backwaters. This threat has also been a factor is convincing the land of the red dragon to strengthen its borders.


As for the reason why India is concerned, it is important to consider previous confrontations involving the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In retrospect. India has been putting the onus on China for justifying its actions along the LAC. The Indian government’s apprehension for this law actually emanated from the law’s Civil-Military fusion aspect. The Indian government believes that China has been utilizing “fortified” border villages to reiterate their defence in all sectors along the LAC. While the development of model border towns is a part of Beijing’s domestic agenda, the Indians fear that China could use this aspect in unison with the border law by slowly expanding its territory towards Bhutan, Nepal and India. The Indian army has also accused China for setting up tents on the Indian side of the LAC which most likely seems a desperate attempt to gain international focus. However, China’s main reason for setting up legislation in the first place was to stop violence and terrorism from spilling inside their border areas.

Several Indian officials also believe that this new border law was adopted just to send a message to India. New Delhi has assumed that the border law is actually a signal given to India to tell them that all negotiations are futile and China will now handle things with the use of military might. The Indian government also believes that there is an ulterior motive behind the law. They have claimed that it’s just another scripture comprising verbiage and clever writing to make the world believe that the reason for adopting such a law was to send the Indians a message. This accusation is mostly viewed as an opinionated speculation with no ground evidence.

The Indian “concern”, is actually viewed as unreasonable from a legal vantage point as the Border Law was not actually brought about to deal with the Sino-Indian border deadlock but was actually meant for effective management of a vast Chinese border. Due to its sheer size, a law like this was deemed necessary. The legislation also conforms to international law as every country has the right to safeguard its land border. As China has not transgressed any legal limits, the Indian “concern” can just be seen as an embodiment of their political and diplomatic agenda.

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