evidence: Ladakh lost special controls over its land in 2019, following a controversial move by the Indian central government that stripped the former state of Jammu and Kashmir of its statehood and broke off Ladakh, which had been a part of it, into a separate territory. [...] China doesn’t recognize what its Foreign Ministry has called the "so-called union territory of Ladakh," saying the "western section of the China-India border has always belonged to China." In addition to China, the territory of Ladakh also shares a disputed border with Pakistan, another neighbor with which New Delhi has fraught relations. [...] "We are with the border with China and Pakistan. How can a sensitive (place) like Ladakh just be turned into a state immediately?" the local party leader, Phunchok Stanzin, told CNN.