In a clear violation of the agreement reached between China and Bhutan under the terms of China’s founding treaty with Bhutan, Beijing is “building” three new villages in an area understood as Bhutanese since 2015.
As of now two of the villages are already occupied and the other is still under construction. Beijing has constructed many buildings in the territory that has been understood as Bhutan’s.
The new village has been named as Gyalaphug in Tibetan or Jieluobu in Chinese in the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), an investigative Foreign Policy report has said.
The real motive behind China building these new villages is to force the Bhutanese government to cede territory that China wants elsewhere in Bhutan. The territory eyed by China has strategic military importance and will give Beijing an upper hand in the region.
“By mirroring in the Himalayas the provocative tactics it has used in the South China Sea, Beijing is risking its relations with its neighbours, whose needs and interests it has always claimed to respect, and jeopardizing its reputation worldwide,” Robert Barnett, the author of the Foreign Policy report said.
In 2017, Beijing tried to build a road in the Doklam plateau, a trijunction between India, China, and Bhutan that led to a 73-day face-off between Chinese and Indian troops.