Longju or Longzu[1] (Tibetan: གླང་བཅུ, Wylie: glang-bcu; Chinese: 朗久; pinyin: Lǎngjiǔ) is a disputed area[b] in the eastern sector of the China–India border, controlled by China but claimed by India.
The village of Longju is located in the Tsari Chu Valley 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) south of the town of Migyitun, considered the historical border of Tibet.
Taking these factors into account, they promised that the border would be drawn short of the high ridge line and avoid including the annual pilgrimage route in Indian territory as far as practicable.
[23] As per the US Office of Geographer's "Large-Scale International Boundaries" (LSIB) database, the McMahon Line of the treaty puts Longju in Tibetan territory.
The Surveyor General of India made adjustments to the McMahon Line boundary "based on more accurate topographical knowledge acquired after 1914".
Verrier Elwin, an authority on Indian tribal communities, stated "Wars, kidnappings, and cruel punishments... have come to an end".
The Tibetans paid them the usual 'tribute' to let the procession pass unmolested but also armed Indian border troops were stationed in the Tsari Chu valley south of the Mandala Plain.
[28] By the beginning of 1958, China had completed the Aksai Chin Road and obtained the capacity for large-scale troop movement into Tibet.
The Chinese suppression of the Tibetan uprising and India's decision to grant asylum to the Dalai Lama inflamed the public opinion on both sides.
On 7 August, Chinese forces initiated hostilities at Khinzemane as well as Longju, pushing back the Indian post at the former and "actual fighting" at the latter.
[35][33] Reports state that a Chinese force of two to three hundred men was used to drive out the Indian border troops from Longju.
[39] Chinese troops began to entrench themselves at the Indian Longju post, digging mines and building airfields, demarcating it as their territory.
Nehru went on to reference four cases: Aksai Chin Road, Pangong Lake area, Khinzemane and Longju.
[43][44] The Longju incident came while numerous questions were already being raised in India based on leaks and news reports.To stem the "tide of criticism", Nehru decided to publish the entire correspondence with the Chinese government as a "white paper".
[46] (Until this point Zhou had been claiming that the PRC was just reprinting the old Kuomintang maps and hadn't had the time to examine the boundary question.
[i] On 2 October 1959, a discussion took place between Soviet and Chinese delegations in which Khrushchev asked Mao "Why did you have to kill people on the border with India?"
Since the Indian-claimed border was undemarcated and the Chinese troops were convinced of links between the Indians and the hostile Tibetans, incidents were bound to occur.
[33] Vertzberger notes that the Longju incident took place in the larger context of deteriorating relations between China and India.
Indian posts were manned by paramilitary Assam Rifles, and it was not feasible to reinforce them with regular military due to lack of infrastructure.
The Indian history of the war states that the withdrawing troops faced an attack from the rear 8 km south of Maja.
On 25 June 1963, in a reply note to India, China said that its "frontier guards have long since completely withdrawn from the twenty-kilometre zones on the Chinese side of the line of actual control of November 7, 1959.
"[67] Amid the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, India reported that 400 Chinese troops entered into Longju area and intruded to a depth of 2 miles into the Subansiri district.
NDTV News quoted a military analyst saying that China has maintained a small forward position in the valley since 2000, which has been uncontested by India.