Images have surfaced on social media suggesting Chinese troops were active deep inside a contested territory administered by India but claimed by Beijing.
The evidence indicates People's Liberation Army troops had penetrated at least 60 kilometers (37 miles) into Arunachal Pradesh, a northeastern Indian state that China calls "South Tibet."
The region is one of the most hotly contested areas in the India-China border feud, which traces its roots back to the British colonial era. The 1962 Sino-Indian war, sparked by these border disputes, saw China temporarily advance into Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin, another disputed region further west.
The Indian and Chinese Foreign Ministries did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.
The recent photos, shared by NewsFy, a news outlet based in Arunachal's capital, Itanagar, show remnants of campfires, discarded cans, and food packaging, along with graffiti in the Kapapu area of Anjaw district.
The graffiti reportedly included the word "China" in both English and Chinese characters, alongside the year 2024—a clear indication of the incursion's recent occurrence. The images also featured a five-pointed star, a symbol commonly associated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Sources cited by the news portal estimated the site had been abandoned about a week before the discovery.
Tensions between China and India have remained high since a deadly melee in Galwan Valley in 2020, in India's sparsely populated Ladakh region, which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops. The clash took place along the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border established after the 1962 conflict.
Subsequent hand-to-hand clashes took place along the border in 2021 and 2022, though no fatalities were reported. Both countries responded by deploying significant numbers of troops and weapons platforms to border regions and building infrastructure to enhance military mobility.
Since the Galwan incident, China and India have held 21 rounds of commander-level talks, aiming to ease tensions and achieve disengagement at hotspots along the border. Despite these efforts, progress has been limited.
Since 2021, the U.S. State Department has explicitly supported India's claim over Arunachal Pradesh amid efforts by Washington and New Delhi to strengthen ties to respond to China's growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
"We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments, military or civilian, across the Line of Actual Control," State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said during a press conference earlier this year.
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