China taking incremental, tactical actions to press claims along frontier with India: Pentagon

What is the news?

Referring to China and India standoff, the US’s latest annual report on ‘Military and Security Developments Involving China’ states that China has been undertaking incremental and tactical actions to press its claims along the frontier with India.

It said that the Chinese military is also gaining “valuable real-world operational and tactical experience” due to the “acute tensions and clashes” in eastern Ladakh since May last year.

What are the key points mentioned in report?

Construction of dual-use villages: China is building civilian village inside disputed territory between the Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh. This village, on the banks of River Tsari Chu, is on “disputed territory” under Beijing’s control for over 60 years.

-It can act like “extended cantonments” for military use, are a major source of concern for India.

China is fast-expanding its military power across the entire spectrum. It’s nuclear warheads could triple to 700 within the six years and would top 1,000 by 2030.

Technologically advanced China’s C4I (command, control, communications, computers and intelligence) systems: Under this, China installed a fibre-optic network in western Himalayas(in Pangong Tso  and Gogra-Hot   springs areas) to provide faster communications and increased protection from foreign interception.

Both China and India continue to maintain large-scale deployments along the LAC and make preparations to sustain these forces while disengagement negotiations have made limited progress.

China has expressed its aim to prevent stand-off from worsening into a wider military conflict, to return bilateral relations with India to a state of economic and diplomatic cooperation.

China seeks to prevent border tensions from causing India to partner more closely with the US. China has warned US to not interfere with China’s relationship with India.

Source: This post is based on the article “China taking incremental, tactical actions to press claims along frontier with India: Pentagon” published in Times Of India on 05 November 2021.