China holds live drills near Arunachal border: 

China holds live drills near Arunachal border: 

China held live-fire exercises in South Tibet Context

• China on Monday held live-fire exercises in Tibet, in an area facing Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls South Tibet.

Mind games being played at Doklam area by China

• China’s Global Times carried that the exercise was conducted by one of the two brigades, which are part of the Tibet Military Command of the People’s Liberation Army.
• The brigade is responsible for frontline combat missions.
• The state-run broadcaster mentioned that brigade has long been stationed around the middle and lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, which becomes the Siang and the Brahmaputra after crossing Chinese territory.

The message conveyed

• Analysts believe that Beijing by conducting the exercise was sending messages to India.
• It appeared willing to widen a possible area of encounter beyond the current focus of the standoff in the Sikkim section, by including Arunachal Pradesh, the scene of the 1962 war.
• The exercises also looked carefully calibrated, and were defensive in the orientation, with the testing of Chinese air defenses as one of the major components.
• The Global Times pointed out that a video showed radar units identifying enemy aircraft and soldiers using anti-aircraft artillery to annihilate targets.
• It also showed soldiers using anti-tank grenades and missiles against bunkers and howitzers for artillery coverage.