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The Place of International Law in Chinese Strategy and Tactics: The Case of the Sino-Indian Boundary Dispute

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Arthur A. Stahnke
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Abstract

The Sino-Indian boundary dispute provides an interesting test case to determine the willingness of mainland China, a revolutionary regime, to argue its position within the framework of traditional international law. Judging by Peking's official rationale for its claims in that dispute, one must conclude that its leaders demonstrated an awareness of the law's uses and limitations, and a willingness to rely upon it as an important support for its position. Thus, though the issue was viewed as a political question, Peking chose to argue that the correct answers to it should rest upon such legal or quasilegal considerations as: (1) the boundary had never been delimited through a process recognized by international law and (2) Chinese claims to contested territory were based upon historical evidence such as administrative control and official records. At the same time, China's diplomate skillfully interspersed nonlegal theses, e.g., that India was seeking to gain by the imperialist activities of the British, and underlined all of their propositions with a show of military strength on her southern frontier.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , November 1970 , pp. 95 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1970

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References

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