China is Building a New Strategic Road Linking Tibet and Xinjiang That Should Concern India: Experts

A landscape in Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur region, China, on Sept. 18, 2007. China's new G216 highway starts from the international border with Mongolia at Hongshanzui Port in Altay County and goes all the way through the Xinjiang desert till the south to Tibet. China Photos/Getty Images

NEW DELHI–China is working to link the regions of Tibet and Xinjiang with a new road named “G216” that’s set to bring the greatest strategic challenge to India since the 1950s, according to experts.

“The G216 highway is rarely mentioned in the Chinese media; it is one of China’s most secret projects,” Claude Arpi, an author and expert on Tibet, wrote in a March 15 op-ed in First Post.