A tweet from a Chinese journalist has sparked controversy that China has invaded Bhutan and established a village. Then deleted the tweet, reported that China had created a village within two kilometers of Bhutan, near the Doklam plateau, but Bhutan has contested the analysis, asserting that there is no Chinese encroachment on its territory.
“There is no Chinese village on Bhutanese territory,” Major General V. Namgyel, Bhutan’s envoy to India, told the media. Asked if the village was on Chinese land, he repeated that all he can say is that there are no Chinese villages on Bhutanese land.
The row broke out after Shen Shiwei, a senior producer with the Chinese state-owned CGTN network, tweeted three images of a village along with a map showing its location. The tweet, which had four photos of a village alongside a river valley and a map, was subsequently deleted.
However, the Major General acknowledged that there had been talks ongoing regarding the border issue between China and Bhutan and that the process had been slowed down upon the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic.
The village is alleged to be on the eastern periphery of the Doklam plateau, where, in 2017, India and China were involved in a stand-off. New satellite imagery put out by the popular Twitter handle @detresfa_ also claims a new 9 km road has come up next to the village into the Doklam Plateau.
