evidence: Since 2016–2017, these villages have been planned and built on multiple sectors of the India-China border—Demchok in Ladakh in the western sector, Churup near Uttarakhand in the middle sector, and near Upper Subansiri in Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector. The construction of new villages has been reported as recently as May 2023. This is not a localized, tactical issue but a broader development across time and space. A careful examination reveals that the villages are an attempt by Beijing to strengthen its hand at the border, with negative implications for India’s border security. [...] Given this civil-military fusion and the building of these villages right up to the India-China border (such as a village in Demchok), the third concern is that China is eroding the basis of border management. This is because the villages undermine the spirit of two key agreements that form the basis of border management between India and China—the 1993 Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement and the 1996 Confidence-Building Measures Agreement. In Point 2 of the 1993 agreement and Article III(1) of the 1996 agreement, the two sides agreed to reduce or limit their respective military forces along the border. By settling civilians in these villages close to the border and then tasking them with national security duties, it seems that China is undertaking actions that contradict the two agreements, thereby undermining the basis of border management. This is concerning especially at a time when skirmishes are more frequent and the border is prone to risks of escalation.