(TibetanReview.net, Jul22’22) – Just hours after it concluded the 16th round of Corps Commander-level talks with India at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Jul 17, China released a 33-second video of a military exercise its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had carried out with the use of attack helicopters over the hotly contested Pangong Lake, reported the news service ANI Jul 20.
Citing China’s official media, another ANI report Jul 22 said the PLA had recently tested an advanced Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) at an altitude of more than 5,300 metres in the Xinjiang Region close to the Indian border that could hit critical Indian military bases.
The border between Chinese occupied Tibet and India’s Union Territory of Ladakh runs through the middle of the Pangong Lake but the land border remains without being demarcated while there is no common perception of the LAC between the two sides, leading to frequent border incidents between the two new, post-1950’s neighbours.
The video of the Pangong Lake exercise was stated to have been telecast by the state media network CCTV.
The video was stated to show China’s army aviation brigade attached to the PLA Xinjiang Military Command carrying out an exercise over the world’s highest saltwater lake, Pangong Lake, at an altitude of almost 4,350 metres.
China’s state media was stated to have reported that Z-10 attack helicopters had joined the drills for the first time, unlike the past when only transport helicopters carried border defence troops for patrol missions.
Meanwhile, the ANI report of Jul 22 cited China’s state media as saying Beijing was likely to deploy the PHL-16 MLRS it tested in Xinjiang on the Sino-Indian border.
The report said China’s PLA had conducted a live-fire training assessment for a new type of rocket mine-laying vehicle in the Xinjiang Region close to the Indian border of the Xinjiang Military Region.
It cited the local media as saying the multiple launch rocket system was expected to be deployed in the Himalayas.