From guns to greetings: Defrosting China's borders
Updated: 2007-10-03 10:03
Jin Guangyong, a soldier at a sentry post along China's southwestern border with India, says Indian soldiers often shout "Hello" to greet Chinese soldiers.
Isolated by snow for eight months a year, the two sentry posts, separated by a canyon, are the only signs of human habitation, clinging to the black and bare mountain.
"I can feel their loneliness, since we suffer it ourselves. We respond to their greetings. Even the guard dogs bark at each other," Jin says. But Major Ai Huaichun remembers skirmishes when troops from the two sides confronted each other on patrol just a decade ago.
"In the 1990s, meetings usually ended in squabbles that solved nothing. The two parties could argue for hours about whether a soldier had trespassed or not," says Ai, who used to serve as an interpreter at joint meetings for 11 years.
China and India fought over the border in 1962 and hostility afflicted bilateral relations for decades until the end of the 20th Century. The year 2000 marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and India, which helped warm relations between the troops.
In June 2006, the Nathu La Pass, a century-old trading post that sits 4,545 meters above sea level between China's Tibet and India's Sikkim, was reopened after being closed 40 years ago.
"Border meetings have become more friendly. The two sides tend to reflect on progress in Sino-Indian relations and constructively plan for further exchanges," says Ai. "Now, if problems like trespassing come to the meeting table, both sides politely agree to further investigate and then settle it through negotiations."
The regular meetings have resulted in the successful repatriation of soldiers who became lost and strayed over the border in 2003 and 2006.
"The meetings have enabled both sides to exchange information promptly and resolve problems conveniently, which has better maintained peace and stability," says Colonel Zhang Weiguo, head of the Chinese delegation at a meeting with Indian border troops in May this year.
From Landmines to Trade Thoroughfare
Tension has also been eased at the Sino-Vietnamese border. In the Friendship Pass area, in China's southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Chinese border troops have just finished clearing landmines left from confrontations in the late 1970s.
Vietnam and China normalized relations in 1990, and in 2002, the two countries agreed to settle demarcation of the border by 2008. The troops have been ordered to step up mine clearances.
In two campaigns from 1992 to 1994 and from 1997 to 1999, Chinese troops cleared more than 6,800 mines from 130,000 square kilometers along the Friendship Pass.
"You face death every day," says Wei Lianhai, who has done the job for almost 10 years.
In June 1998, Wei and his comrades were setting up detonation devices in a minefield, and one soldier was so nervous he pulled a fuse before the order was given. They had to evacuate immediately, but one was trapped in vines on the ground. They managed to pull him free and run to safety before the mine went off.
When they cleared the last landmine on July 5, making the Friendship Pass zone a mine-free area, everybody roared with relief.
They had reason to rejoice, as they had smoothed the way for the two countries to develop tourism, trade and regional integration.
China has been the largest trade partner of Vietnam for two years running, with trade hitting almost US$10 billion in 2006, up 21.4 percent from 2005. Leaders of the two countries have set a target of US$15 billion by 2010.
In addition, they have pledged to accelerate the establishment of sub-regional economic areas, including the China-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) free trade zone and trade corridors along the Mekong River, which originates in China, runs through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and empties into the South China Sea.
"A peaceful border is part of any promising relationship between two armies and two countries, and provides opportunities for increasing mutual respect and trust," says Jiang Yi, the CASS research fellow.
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