The jostling by China and India over disputed territory in the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan stems from a desire for strategic control and from fears of ceding it. On June 16, Bhutan turned to India for military reinforcements to halt a Chinese road construction project seemingly headed toward a Bhutanese army outpost on the Doklam plateau. While Doklam is part of the ongoing boundary disputes between Bhutan and China, India’s rapid response to the request was based on its own security considerations. New Delhi is keen to deny Beijing a presence on a strategically significant piece of land, which India fears would ease the movement of Chinese troops closer to the Siliguri corridor, a narrow strip of land connecting mainland India with its far flung northeastern wing and thus vulnerable to attack....
