An interesting observation.
Have you taken into consideration that there are two tracts under dispute, and that until recently, China was willing to do a kind of swap - concessions on Arunachal Pradesh, in return for complete agreement with China's line on Aksai Chin?
In case this sounds unfair or asymmetric, have you taken into consideration that in Arunachal Pradesh, India had declared her version of the border to be the McMahon Line, which declared itself to be the watershed between Tibet and Assam? In many places, the McMahon Line, which was merely a line drawn on a map while the three sets of representatives were sitting in Simla, was drawn in ignorance of ground conditions NORTH of the watershed, that is, in Tibetan territory. When our troops went to take up their positions right up to the McMahon Line, they found that in certain cases, they were forced to take position on the downward slope towards Tibet.
Would you seriously object to the border in Arunachal Pradesh being along a jointly-surveyed watershed line, even if it means giving up a couple of acres of barren hilltop?
On the other hand, you may also be aware that the detailed boundary line in Aksai Chin was never part of the peace treaty, was never surveyed, and was never put onto a map by mutual consent? There were no less than three variations of the border declared (unilaterally every time) by the British, in their role as suzerain power over Jammu & Kashmir, a different role from their role as sovereigns, the owners in possession, in Arunachal Pradesh.
One extreme version, drawn by a British official who wanted to curry favour with the Jammu court, actually placed the border along the Kuen Lun mountain range; this was the extreme case, and a quick look at the map will convince you that it was pretty extreme. Actually, laughable.
The standard British version, the one adopted by India on Nehru's instructions to avoid the embarrassment of a border dispute over a border marked 'undemarcated', was a fanciful line which had no logic behind it. In fact, the Indian Army's best line of defence, the Karakorum Range, runs in a logical fashion, and more or less straight north-west to south-east, well behind the British line.
These areas were not surveyed and were not demarcated largely because they were uninhabited. Aksai Chin is a cold desert; nobody lives there, at any moment there are only nomadic herders in transit to be found there. Younghusband, for instance, has detailed conditions for the area from his personal observations during his voyage through the area (this is subject to verification, as I am stating this from memory). Nobody from either side doubted that the Karakorum Pass and the lake Pangong Tso were on the border, and spread on both sides equally. These were the fixed points; all the rest was open desert. We have no earthly use for it, the Ladakhis don't go there, there is nothing to be done there.
After this, do you understand why your remarks do not seem to serve our own best interests?
