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Aksai Chin
A high desert plateau administered by China and claimed by India
At around 5,000 meters, Aksai Chin is a cold, high-altitude desert of salt lakes and bare plains where almost no one lives, yet it lies at the center of the boundary dispute between the world's two most populous countries. China administers it, mostly as part of the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang, with a smaller portion under Tibet. India claims it as part of its union territory of Ladakh and, more broadly, of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The two armies face each other across a Line of Actual Control that has never been jointly demarcated on the ground, and the sovereignty question at its core remains unresolved.
The territory covers roughly 37,000 to 38,000 square kilometers between the Karakoram to the west and the Kunlun Mountains to the north, at the northwestern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Rainfall is minimal, winters are severe, and the soda flats that give the region its name, often rendered as desert of white stones, support little beyond seasonal grazing. Its strategic value lies in transport: China's G219 highway, built in the 1950s, crosses Aksai Chin to link Xinjiang with western Tibet. Along the Line of Actual Control to the south and west lie the Depsang Plains, the Galwan Valley, and Pangong Lake, all scenes of standoffs. China also holds the adjoining Shaksgam Valley, which India likewise claims.
British surveyors drew competing boundary lines through the region in the 19th century, and neither the Johnson Line, which placed Aksai Chin in Kashmir, nor later proposals were ever agreed with China. India learned of the completed Chinese road in 1957, and the dispute over the area fed into the 1962 Sino-Indian War, after which China retained control. Agreements in the 1990s committed both sides to keep the peace along the Line of Actual Control, but a 2020 clash in the Galwan Valley killed soldiers on both sides. An October 2024 agreement on patrolling at Depsang and Demchok eased tensions, and relations improved through 2025. India protested when China created two new counties covering parts of Aksai Chin in December 2024, and the boundary question remains open.