Developments in Tibet and Panchsheel

The Chinese army entered Tibet in 1950 and occupied it. India, apart from sharing about 2000 miles of frontier in the Tibet region, had inherited several rights and obligations over Tibet from the British rule. However, to maintain peace, Nehru in 1954 concluded an agreement with China, which formalised the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The agreement is popularly known as Panchsheel.

In 1959, a popular uprising took place in Tibet against Chinese dominance. Though the upsurge was suppressed by China, the religious head of Tibet, Dalai Lama fled and took asylum in India. Taking this as an excuse, China in 1959 occupied Longju and 12,000 square miles of Indian territory in Ladakh. This followed a series of protest notes, memorandums and aide memoires being exchanged between the two countries. In the next move, China laid claims on large parts of Indian territories, after which the Chinese prime minister, Chou-En-Lai came to New Delhi in April 1960 to negotiate border disputes. Official teams of the two countries also visited each other, but no agreement could be reached and the border dispute continued.