Why are China and India fighting over an inhospitable strip of the Himalayas?

Hong Kong CNN — After over four decades of saber-rattling and minor scuffles, a border dispute between China and India has again turned fatal. The Indian army initially confirmed three casualties, but later said an additional 17 soldiers “exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries.” In his book on the region, British historian Neville Maxwell describes it as a “no-man’s land, where nothing grows and no one lives.” And yet, India and China went to war over it in 1962, leaving thousands dead on both sides, and between that month-long conflict and Monday’s skirmish, the region saw numerous fist fights and minor clashes between border guards and outraged statements from Beijing or New Delhi accusing the other of seeking to overstep the de facto border. As Maxwell writes in his book “India’s China War,” sovereignty over the Aksai Chin region has always been somewhat confused. “While India recognized the so-called ‘McMahon line,’” a holdover of the British colonial era, analyst Larry Wortzel writes in a US military report, “China never formally accepted it, opting instead for the ‘borders of habit’ that had existed between adjoining peoples for decades previous.” This created an uneasy status quo which persists today, where neither side quite agrees on the border, both regularly accuse the other of overstepping it or seeking to expand their territory, and excuse for conflict is easy to come by. “It’s still not clear to me, as a general principle, whether these disputes start as carefully calculated provocations or as missteps and misunderstandings.” Video Ad Feedback China flexes military muscle amid coronavirus pandemic 04:00 - Source: CNN No room for conflict For all the concerns over potential troop movements on both sides, any conflict in the area would be exceptionally difficult.