Down on the border, simmering China-India stand-off raises fears for local lifeline

As an eyeball-to-eyeball stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops high in the Himalayas enters its second month, China’s state-controlled media is adopting a more aggressive stance on border issues.

For example, in a lengthy feature published on Monday, the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, said some residents of Sikkim, the Indian state closest to the site of the stand-off, were experiencing an “identity crisis”.

It said most did not identify themselves as Indians, and quoted a Chinese researcher as saying they felt closer to China.

The man who represents Sikkim in India’s parliament, Prem Das Rai, described the prolonged stand-off, the first in the area since a clash in 1967, as a “new phenomenon” that was different and more severe than the run-of-the-mill, non-violent cross-border incidents seen in the past 50 years.

“Usually border incursions are sorted out within days, but this one has been going on for over a month,” he told the South China Morning Post.

Rai said he was alarmed by the increasingly strident tone taken by Chinese media as it touted the notion of Sikkim independence. Sikkim merged with India following a referendum in 1975.