Chinese forces entered Indian territory amid border standoff, say reports

Chinese forces are said to have entered Indian territory on at least four occasions within a week, multiple media reports from India say. The alleged incursion comes during a tense border standoff between the countries, with mediation efforts yielding no results so far.

Media outlets in India have reported that Chinese soldiers moved as far as 1km into the Indian region before they retreated. The troops are believed to have spent a few hours within India's borders before they returned. The reported incursions took place in the Indian state of Uttarakhand's Barahoti with the major one occurring on 25 July.

There is no official word either from the Indian government or the Chinese administration on any of these developments.

"Uttarakhand shouldn't be looked at as being remote... China could capture a lot of territory in Uttarakhand if they wanted to and march all the way to Delhi. The incursion has opened up a potential corridor to the capital," Brahma Chellaney, a strategic affairs analyst, told the CNN-News18 network. Uttarakhand shares a 350km border with China.

On 19 July, a Chinese helicopter reportedly hovered over Indian airspace in Uttarakhand before disappearing into Chinese airspace. On the same day, Beijing's ground troops camped in the border area, according to a local media report.

The purported movement of the Chinese troops took place even as India's National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval visited Beijing in an attempt to ease tensions in the border regions. His visit was widely expected to provide the much-awaited breakthrough in the longstanding crisis, but had no success.

Tensions on the India-China border have escalated in recent weeks with both New Delhi and Beijing refusing to back down from their positions.