Line of Actual Control
Disputed boundary between China and India / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Line of Actual Control (LAC), in the context of the Sino-Indian border dispute, is a notional demarcation line[1][2][3][4] that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory.[5] The concept was introduced by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in a 1959 letter to Jawaharlal Nehru as the "line up to which each side exercises actual control", but rejected by Nehru as being incoherent.[6][7] Subsequently, the term came to refer to the line formed after the 1962 Sino-Indian War.[8]
The LAC is different from the borders claimed by each country in the Sino-Indian border dispute. The Indian claims include the entire Aksai Chin region and the Chinese claims include Zangnan (South Tibet)/Arunachal Pradesh. These claims are not included in the concept of "actual control".
The LAC is generally divided into three sectors:[5][9]
- the western sector between Ladakh on the Indian side and the Tibet and Xinjiang autonomous regions on the Chinese side. This sector was the location of the 2020 China–India skirmishes.
- the middle sector between Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh on the Indian side and the Tibet autonomous region on the Chinese side.
- the eastern sector between Zangnan (South Tibet)/Arunachal Pradesh on the Indian side and the Tibet autonomous region on the Chinese side. This sector generally follows the McMahon Line.[lower-alpha 1]
The term "line of actual control" originally referred only to the boundary in the western sector after the 1962 Sino-Indian War, but during the 1990s came to refer to the entire de facto border.[10]