China troops enter disputed India territory

Chinese troops have advanced in recent days into disputed territory claimed by India, echoing a similar incursion last year that raised tensions between the two rival giants, official sources said on Tuesday. Chinese troops twice crossed over the border into a remote area of the western Himalayas, with some unfurling a banner that read ‘this is Chinese territory, go back’, an official said on condition of anonymity. Indian border police noticed the troops on Sunday in an unpopulated area of Ladakh during a patrol of the informal border that separates India and China. ‘It was a temporary peaceful face-off with PLA well inside Indian territory,’ the official said referring to China’s People's Liberation Army. He said troops returned to India’s Burtse area in Ladakh (Aksai China) on Monday displaying a banner ‘understood to be saying ‘this is Chinese territory, go back’.’ Chinese troops also crossed over the border into the same area last April and set up camps, triggering a 3-week standoff with Indian soldiers which was only resolved after senior officers from both sides reached an agreement for a joint pullback. That row had threatened to dent improving ties between the two countries which have long been dogged by mutual suspicion – a legacy of a 1962 border war, according to AFP.