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A tunnel constructed high in the mountains of northeastern India has become the latest flashpoint in a simmering border dispute between New Delhi and Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sela Tunnel, inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month, has been hailed in India as a feat of engineering \u2013 blasted through the Himalayas at an elevation of some 13,000 feet (3,900 meters) \u2013 and a boon for the military, enabling faster, \u201call-weather\u201d access to a tense de facto border with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s caught the attention of Beijing, whose long-running dispute with New Delhi over their contested 2,100-mile (3,379-kilometer) border has seen the two nuclear-armed powers clash in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That includes in 2020 when hand-to-hand fighting<\/a> between the two sides resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers in Aksai Chin-Ladakh in the western stretches of the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, decades ago, the dispute led to war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China also claims the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, where the tunnel was constructed, as its own, even as the area has long functioned as Indian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese officials in recent days have slammed the tunnel project and Modi\u2019s visit to the state, accusing New Delhi of taking steps to undermine peace along the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe require the Indian side to cease any action that may complicate the boundary question \u2026 the Chinese military remains highly vigilant and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u201d a Defense Ministry spokesperson said<\/a> last week, using the Chinese name \u201cZangnan\u201d or South Tibet to refer to Arunachal Pradesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India hit back on Tuesday, slamming Beijing\u2019s \u201cabsurd claims\u201d and saying<\/a> the area \u201cis and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US State Department also weighed in during a news conference Wednesday backing<\/a> India\u2019s sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh and voicing strong opposition to \u201cany unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions or encroachments\u201d across the line of actual control (LAC), or de facto border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n