First time posting, so help with the submission statement would be appreciated. Apologies if my question doesn’t align with the content rule.
SS: the articles I’ve linked below report on Chinese construction projects across borders that are disputed by China, India, or Bhutan. I believe that these borders are internationally recognized as sovereign territory in most if not all cases. The region has strategic military value for the two most populous nations on the planet, both of which are nuclear states and potential if not probable emerging superpowers. As such, small incursions now might have far-reaching consequences for the future of world peace.
Does anyone else feel like China’s incursions on India and now Bhutan have gone underreported?
byu/ExtraCommunity4532 ingeopolitics
8 Comments
What incursions? /s
When you are competing for air time with Ukraine and Israel, everything looks under reported. There is only so much airplay, and human interest. What’s your concern?
What is underreported is the CCP involved in propping up drug/human smuggling/scams/money laundering in cooperation with transnational organised crime like the Sinaloa Cartel and Golden Triangle slave scam factories. The latter generates several times more revenue than the US-Mexico drug trade and is tied to the Hunsen Regime, Myanmar Civl War, and One Belt One Road. Crickets.
It is hard to measure underreported. Broadly though
1) The claims and counterclaims have been reported.
2) The times when the dispute goes more than mildly hot are sporadic and, thankfully, fairly short lived. These are usually reported. Pretty sure the diplomatic complaints go on though.
3) The areas in question are remote, inaccessible and relatively unpopulated. Probably harder to get interest (unless you’re one of the countries involved) when the dispute is more about lines on a map. Journalists are rather unlikely to travel to the areas involved.
4) The countries involved, Bhutan and China especially, are rather well known to be rather opaque journalistically. Even getting permission to travel there will be difficult as a visitor/tourist much less getting permission to film or report as a journalist. What you’re pretty much left with is not a whole lot of reportage.
Here in the USA, pretty much everything that happens outside of the United States and Israel is underreported.
Here’s the problem with your question: you think you’ve stumbled upon some grand, underreported crisis, as if everyone else is just asleep at the wheel. China and India have been involved in territorial disputes for decades—this is nothing new. It’s not “underreported” so much as people who understand these dynamics don’t blow up every minor event like it’s the start of World War III.
You’re acting like these Chinese construction projects are going to suddenly spiral into some massive conflict that the rest of the world is oblivious to. Spoiler: they aren’t. The reality is, both India and China are playing a long game of strategic posturing, but it’s not nearly as dramatic as you’re making it sound. The reason this doesn’t get wall-to-wall coverage isn’t because it’s being ignored, but because the stakes aren’t as dire as you’re pretending they are.
The truth is, you’re coming at this like an armchair strategist, posting in geopolitics to feel like you’re contributing to some big conversation when, really, you’re just rehashing surface-level takes that have been discussed to death. It’s not that this isn’t important—it’s that your take on it lacks the depth or understanding to be taken seriously. Instead of getting caught up in what seems underreported, try digging into why this situation is more status quo than impending crisis.
I don’t see any articles linked. The comment might be in the mod queue?
>Bhutan wants a border deal with China: Will India accept?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65396384