NEW DELHI: The US Department of Defence, in its latest report, said that China has improved its training and infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control aimed at long-term sustenance of the troops along the de-facto borders.
Mentioning the People’s Liberation Army, the Report says that the PLAA continued to improve its methods and standards of training combined arms units. Training encompassed individual to collective soldier events integrating reconnaissance, infantry, artillery, armour, engineers, and signal units.
In addition to continued PLAA deployments to the Indian border and Burma, the PLAA conducted multiple large-scale exercises in training areas throughout the country.
The 2024 report to the US Congress on the military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) covers security and military developments involving the PRC through early 2024.
The report, to elaborate its point about the Chinese actions along the LAC linking it with the military infrastructure spruce-up, gives the background of China’s tensions with India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
LAC - a disputed border between the PRC’s western provinces and India’s northern provinces—sparked a standoff between PRC and Indian forces in mid-May 2020, which escalated on June 15, 2020, after a skirmish ensued in the Galwan Valley between the Indian Army and PLA forces that ended with 20 Indian soldiers and four PRC soldiers dead.
The two sides agreed to tactical pull-backs from most of the contested areas in early 2021 but standoffs continued at two locations in Ladakh on the Western Sector of the LAC.
In late 2022, PRC and Indian forces engaged in an unarmed clash near Tawang along the Eastern Sector of the LAC separating Tibet and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
This was the first such clash since the 2020 skirmish although local commanders quickly defused the clash and the overall standoff did not substantively escalate.
“These engagements coincide with a significant and sustained escalation in military infrastructure to support a long-term presence on the LAC," says the DoD.
In late 2023, India hosted the 20th round of commander-level meetings with the PLA. Both sides agreed to maintain communication and dialogue through military and diplomatic channels.
In 2020, PLA Special Operations Forces (SOF) from the Tibet Military Region were deployed to the border with India following clashes between PRC and Indian forces along the LAC, the report adds.
Currently, there has been disengagement from all standoff points in Eastern Ladakh with the latest being those at the Depsang and Demchok in October.
The PRC has defined its core interests, says the report, as issues so central to its national rejuvenation that the official position on them is not subject to negotiation or compromise and this also includes the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The PRC began using the term in 2003, initially in reference to sovereignty issues regarding Taiwan and later Tibet and Xinjiang. In 2009, the senior PRC official for foreign affairs publicly defined the elements of core interests: 1) preserving the PRC’s political system, 2) defending the PRC’s sovereignty and territorial claims, and 3) promoting the PRC’s economic development.
The list of core interests has grown over the last decade with President Xi increasingly using the terms of a national security law passed in 2015 to extend the formal status of “core interest” to territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS), the Senkaku Islands, and the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
On the Chinese Military, the report mentions that the Western Theater Command (WTC) is oriented toward India and counterterrorism missions along the PRC’s Central Asia borders.
“The WTC focuses on Xinjiang and Tibet Autonomous Regions, where the CCP perceives a high threat of separatism, terrorism, and extremism. The WTC is geographically the largest theater command in the PRC and is responsible for responding to conflict with India, border interactions with Central Asian states, and what the PRC refers to as the “three evil forces” of terrorism, separatism, and extremism in Tibet and Xinjiang.”, it says.
The WTC’s primary focus is on securing the PRC’s border with India. In recent years, differing perceptions between India and the PRC regarding border demarcations have facilitated multiple clashes, force buildups, and military infrastructure construction.
In June 2020, PLA and Indian patrols clashed in Galwan Valley—the most violent clash between the two countries in 45 years. The PLA has not drawn down its positions or troop numbers since the 2020 clash and has built infrastructure and support facilities to maintain multiple BDE deployments along the LAC.
WTC and Indian commanders have held 21 corps commander-level talks since the 2020 clash.
Adding about the modernisation, the PLA has sought to modernize its capabilities and improve its proficiencies across all warfare domains, is “to become a joint force capable of the full range of land, air, and maritime as well as nuclear, space, counter space, electronic warfare, and cyberspace operations.
Despite its progress, the force still has significant deficiencies including in commander proficiency, long-distance logistics, and urban warfare.” Added the report.