The so-called "Line of Actual Control" -- a 2,400-mile disputed boundary that divides India from China -- is longer than the distance between Jacksonville and San Diego. Most of it is located in the high, desolate mountains -- land where "not even a blade of grass grows," as Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru put it in the years preceding the 1962 Sin0-Indian War. And yet this barren landscape has been a source of tension between the two Asian giants for more than half a century.
The recent incursion by Chinese soldiers into Indian territory is only the latest in a long history of skirmishes over the boundary. While cooperation since the border was reopened in 2006 has helped diffuse tensions, the dividing line is still regularly crossed by the Chinese military. In their article "The Most Dangerous Border in the World" for Foreign Policy, Ely Ratner and Alexander Sullivan write that while the latest standoff is unlikely to result in war, the China-India fault line is worth our attention as a flashpoint in the complicated dynamics between the two powers. For more, check out these images of life on the ever-fraught Sino-Indian border.
Above, Indian Army soldiers patrol the Line of Control at the India-China international border in Bumla at an altitude of 15,700 feet above sea level in Arunachal Pradesh state, India in October 2012.
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Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force personnel salute as they march during their Passing Out Parade at the Additional Training Centre in Amritsar, India in March 2013.
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Indian Army personnel keep vigilant at Bumla pass, the last Indian army post at the India-China border, in Arunachal Pradesh, in October 2012.
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Road construction workers carry their belongings on the way to a construction site near the Line of Control in Arunachal Pradesh, India in October 2012.
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An Indian Army soldier keeps watch at the Line of Control in Arunachal Pradesh, India in October 2012.
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Indian Army troops patrol the border region at an altitude of 16,000 feet. The temperature at the time of the photograph was -4 degrees Celsius due to heavy snowfall in Arunachal Pradesh, India in November 2003.
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A Nyishi tribesman crosses a hanging bridge over the Kamen Riverin the East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh in August 2008. The rugged terrains of this remote northeastern border region make transport extremely difficult.
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A Nyishi tribesman holds an Insas-5.56mm rifle belonging to the Indian Army in the East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh in November 2008.
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Chinese girls pose for a picture with Indian Army personnel during their 58th National Day celebration in Bumla, along the India-China border, in October 2007. To celebrate increasing trust and confidence between the two countries, a Chinese delegation distributed gifts among the Indian Army officials and their families.
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Indian Army troops march in the freezing temperatures of Arunachal Pradesh in November 2003.
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Chinese traders walk between Indian soldiers after crossing the China-India border at Nathu La Pass, located 15,000 feet above sea level in India's northeastern state of Sikkim, on July 6, 2006. The day marked the opening of the famed Silk Road Himalayan pass, allowing for the first direct border trade between the Asian giants since their brutal frontier war 44 years earlier.
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Chinese soldiers stand at the Nathu La Pass in August 2003, three years before the border was reopened.
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A Chinese soldier looks at an image of himself on an Indian journalist's camera as an Indian soldier looks on in Nathu La Pass on July 5, 2006.
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A Chinese soldier and an Indian soldier stand guard at the Chinese side of the ancient Nathu La border crossing between the two countries in July 2008. Two years after the border reopened, optimism had given way to despair as the flow of traders shrunk to a trickle because of red tape, poor facilities, and substandard roads in India's remote northeastern mountainous state of Sikkim.
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Indian Army soldiers of the Gorkha Regiment carry weapons as they walk through snow along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh in October 2003.
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Chinese fighter jets -- copies of the Russian MIG-21 -- are pictured at Gonggar airport in June 1987.
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Indian Army personnel keep watch at Bumla pass at the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh in October 2012.
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A bulldozer makes its way along the Nathu La Pass close to the ancient Nathu La border crossing between India and China in July 2008.
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A Chinese soldier stands guard on the Chinese side of the Nathu La border crossing in July 2008.
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A Chinese soldier stands guard on the Chinese side of the Nathu La border crossing in July 2008.
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