Eye on Doklam, China nibbles at disputed land in northern Bhutan

Since 1984, China and Bhutan have held 24 rounds of talks to settle their disagreements; in April they agreed to hold the 25th round soon

Foreign Policy magazine, in a major investigative article on Friday, revealed that the Chinese government in Tibet, in an initiative directed personally by President Xi Jinping since 2017, is setting up villages in territory that China claims in northern Bhutan.

The article, titled “China Is Building Entire Villages in Another Country’s Territory”, describes how, since 2015, the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) authorities rapidly constructed “a previously unnoticed network of roads, buildings, and military outposts… deep in a sacred valley in Bhutan”.

This area where the Chinese have encroached is known as the Beyul Khenpajong. It is one of about seven holy areas