ABSTRACT
The approach to different boundary situations varies, emphasizing historical, ethnic, physical, or political overtones that form the basis for conflict or change. This chapter reviews different boundary conditions in China. The boundary dispute between China and India stems from the semi-independent status of Tibet within China, British and Russian political ambitions and spheres of influence in the Himalayas, and the physical nature of a frontier that lacks any well-defined geographical or "natural" boundaries. In 1949, the exile of the Nationalist Chinese government and, in 1950, the assumption of complete control over Tibet by the new Chinese Communist government changed not only the status of the Tibetan-Indian border but the status of all of China's border areas. Extending from the Pamir plateau in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, the Sino-Russo boundary is interrupted by the Mongolian People's Republic.
