Victor Gao claims all land north of Ganga for China. People say he's a ‘diplomatic fighter'

The Print

a day ago

Gao's comments reflect a broader Chinese narrative that selectively contests colonial-era agreements, particularly the Simla Accord of 1914. His views have found enthusiastic support online , with some seeing him as a ' diplomatic fighter '. They are also calling the 'Ganges River boundary' proposition as a 'Victor Gao Line', praising it as a masterstroke and a leap in strategic thinking . Others have labelled India's stance as a product of its ' inner demons ' and its belief in a 'fictional colonial border'.
The India-China border issue has long shaped the contours of bilateral ties. Despite the deadly 2020 Galwan clash and limited disengagement since, core issues remain unresolved, largely because Beijing prefers ambiguity, keeping the dispute alive as a means of strategic leverage.
Everything north of the Ganga River belongs to China.' This provocative claim by Victor Gao, vice president of the Center for China and Globalization, recently sparked a heated online debate in China. Gao's remarks are more than just rhetorical bravado; they signal a strategic tactic—using history and symbolism as a key argument in Chinese discourse to apply pressure in the border dispute.
This line of thinking positions China's argument as a civilisational counterpoint: if India can uphold the colonial-era McMahon Line as sacrosanct, why shouldn't China invoke the Ganges—the 'Mother River'—as a more authentic civilisational boundary? On Chinese platforms, many argue that the McMahon Line was never legitimate to begin with. According to them, it was the result of collusion between British India and Tibetan representatives, which pushed the boundary northward and robbed China of over 90,000 square kilometres of 'ancestral territory'.
Gao's rhetorical pivot is being celebrated online as a display of strategic finesse. 'India decries colonialism in principle but clings to colonial boundaries in practice. It preserves what is advantageous and discards the rest. That is a rogue double standard,' quipped a Baidu user.
Far from being dismissed as fringe nationalism, Gao's claim aligns with a larger push to challenge Western norms and redraw borders on Chinese terms—both literal and conceptual. This narrative caters to domestic audiences while sending a broader geopolitical signal: postcolonial boundaries are not fixed, and China reserves the right to question them.
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China's narrative arsenal
Chinese strategic messaging does not stop at redrawing history. The strategic community within China frames India's stance as rooted in historical insecurity and inflated ambition. Hu Shisheng, director at the South Asia Institute of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, portrays India as a power intoxicated by imagined grandeur. According to him, India sees itself as the 'heir to the British colonial legacy' and views China's rise as a direct challenge to its regional dominance. He argues that India suffers from 'three miscalculations': underestimating China's will to defend its sovereignty, overestimating support from the United States, and misjudging its own military capabilities.
Liu Zongyi, senior fellow at the Centre for South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, goes further. He accuses India of reneging on every major political guideline since 2005, especially after the 2020 clashes. He claims that India has turned the border dispute into a geopolitical bargaining chip, leveraging it to deepen ties with the West.
Ridicule on social media
The online debate has also taken an ugly turn. Supporters of Gao's views have resorted to racist and derogatory tropes. Some Chinese internet users circulated mocking videos and memes about the Ganges River, labelling it polluted and unsanitary. Others suggested it needed a 'gas mask river chief', citing industrial waste and high E coli levels in Varanasi.
Chinese users contrasted this with what they called Beijing's 'responsible' stewardship of transboundary rivers, such as data sharing on the Brahmaputra.
'India dumps an average of 1.3 billion litres of toxic wastewater into the Ganges every day, turning the holy river into a 'sewage ditch where corpses float,'' wrote a Weibo user.
A Chinese influencer, who was banned from entering India after a derogatory video following Operation Sindoor, commented: 'Good, I never wanted to drink Ganges water anyway.' These remarks, meant to provoke, betray an insidious cultural condescension masquerading as strategic commentary.
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Content to avoid resolution
The online frenzy reveals a deeper truth: Beijing is more interested in shaping narratives than in sincerely resolving the dispute.
If China could resolve the dispute with 12 other neighbours, it could have done so with New Delhi. But China's border issue with India is a 'leftover from history'—one it intends to pass on to the next generation of leaders. Xi Jinping is going nowhere for now, and there is no clarity on who comes next. What is clear is that China sees the dispute as a long-term leverage point.
For now, Beijing is content to avoid resolution, distract with historical revisionism, and provoke through offensive rhetoric. This is hardly the posture of a country seeking peace or genuine reconciliation with its neighbour. If anything, the commentary and its support signal a growing assertiveness in Chinese claims over Indian territory, and the possibility that new fronts could be opened.
Sana Hashmi is a fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation. She tweets @sanahashmi1. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)