Sino-Indian border is 2K km long: Chinese media

Beijing: China appears to be making ground for claiming some 1,600 kms of Indian territory judging by reports in the state-owned media on the length of Sino-Indian border.

Even as the two countries have been discussing the unresolved boundary issue for decades, the state-owned Xinhua and ‘Global Times’, an English language newspaper published by the ‘People’s Daily’, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, have described the Sino-Indian border as nearly 2,000 km long.

The reports about the length of the border were carried in the Chinese official media ahead of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s December 15-17 visit to India.

Xinhua on the eve of Wen’s arrival in New Delhi had said the length of the border was nearly 2,000 km long.

This Chinese assessment contradicts the Indian figure of 3,500 km for the operational border between the two nations.