NEW DELHI: Allegations have emerged regarding increased Chinese military activity along the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh. A regional party’s fact-finding team has reported that the People’s Liberation Army is allegedly enhancing its control over patrolling points in the Taksing sector. In response, the Indian government has dismissed these claims. This incident marks the latest development in a long-standing territorial dispute that has historical roots extending back over a century.
China’s claim over the region rests on a different premise. India rejects this outright, pointing to Arunachal Pradesh’s long-standing status as an Indian state with its own elected government and population. The team was led by former minister and PPA chief adviser Kahfa Bengia, and included vice-president Kaling Jerang along with secretaries Sorang Kiokam and Narah Jimmy. New Delhi has not accepted the party’s account. Senior ministers have also weighed in at the highest level. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met at the Defence Minister’s office in Parliament amid the growing noise around the claims. Beijing, meanwhile, has struck a calmer tone. The PPA’s report is not an official military or government assessment, and New Delhi has issued no formal statement addressing it directly. But it has pulled fresh attention toward one of Arunachal Pradesh’s most remote frontier belts, reviving a long-running argument over how much ground India may be quietly losing along a border that China has never fully accepted.
The People’s Party of Arunachal, a regional outfit founded in 1977 that currently holds two seats in the state’s 30-member assembly, sent a four-member committee to Taksing on 10 July 2026. The row comes just as India pushed back against Chinese objections to New Delhi formally naming 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh on its maps, insisting the state is an inseparable part of the country. Earlier reporting noted: The decision of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) to visit a sensitive stretch of the India-China border followed a fact-finding report by the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA), which said that Chinese soldiers had taken over a patrolling point abandoned by the Indian Army in 2023. He also said the union’s ‘Taksing Chalo, Bharat Bachao’ tour would culminate on August 15 with the hoisting of the national flag.
Beijing regards Tibet as historically part of China, and by extension views Arunachal Pradesh as territory that belonged to Tibet before the British drew their line, referring to the state as “South Tibet” and claiming roughly 90,000 square kilometres of it. Government sources rejected talk of “slow encroachment,” saying the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police remain fully prepared to dominate the border and keep watch on Chinese movements. External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India’s stance on Arunachal Pradesh has not shifted. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the border situation remains generally stable when asked whether the PLA had stepped up activity near Arunachal Pradesh. Earlier reporting noted: AAPSU president Meje Taku said his team’s tour to Taksing was planned to draw greater attention to border security, connectivity, and infrastructure in remote areas. Earlier reporting noted: “The people and youth of Arunachal Pradesh will not accept any attempt to undermine the country’s territorial integrity,” Mr. Taku said, calling for stronger security measures along the frontier.
