Macartney–MacDonald Line

The Macartney–MacDonald Line was a boundary proposal by the British Raj for the border between the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Chinese territories of Xinjiang and Tibet.

In 1893, Hung Ta-chen, the Chinese envoy at St. Petersburg,[a] gave maps of the region to George Macartney, the British consul at Kashgar, which coincided with it in broad details.

Scholars Fisher, Rose and Huttenback comment: This proposed border agreement would have entailed major territorial concessions by the British, since the Government of India had demonstrated both on maps and through the exercise of authority in the Aksai Chin that they considered the Kunlun range to be the de facto boundary between Sinkiang and Kashmir.

The Chinese Communists must indeed find it galling that the Ch'ing Court did not even formally reply to the British offer, thus rejecting it by default.

[7][8] The Macartney–MacDonald line is described as follows: "From the Karakoram Pass the crests of the range run nearly east for about half a degree, and then turn south to a little below the 35th parallel.. Rounding... the source of the Karakash, the line of hills to be followed runs north-east to a point east of Kizil Jilga and from there, in a south-easterly direction, follows the Lak Tsung (Lokzhung) Range until that meets a spur.. which has hitherto been shown on our maps as the eastern boundary of Ladakh.