(TibetanReview.net, Apr29’24) —China is strengthening infrastructure close to the line of actual control (LAC) in occupied Tibet, with a major construction project taking place for a new township in Shannan (Tibetan: Lhokha), in south-eastern Tibet, reported the timesnownews.com Apr 28.
A new project is coming up in Luobusha (Tibetan: Lhunpo Zhol Township in Nagartse County) in Shannan Prefecture, a sparsely-populated part of Tibet, with less than four lakh people living in an area of about 80,000 sq km. Importantly, it is about 125 km from the LAC, roughly north of Arunachal Pradesh, the report said.
The housing project is reported to involve the construction of 164 houses to be begun next month to be ready by the end of next year. The report saw this as more evidence of China’s increased emphasis on infrastructure build-up close to the LAC. A housing project could of course be for civilians and if necessary, for soldiers, it said.
The report also said that with the onset of spring, work on military infrastructure and training had begun in earnest. These were stated to include:
– The 84th aviation brigade was involved in an exercise involving the Z-19 and Z-18 helicopters.
– The 84th air defence regiment was involved in missile firing in the Aksai Chin area
– The 99th Air Brigade participated in flight training of the J-16 aircraft, a fighter similar to the Indian Air Force’s Sukhoi-30. The Chinese air force began using it about ten years ago and is one of its frontline fighters.
Besides, a new 4-km road track was reported to be under construction in the Shaksgam area, which could become “pucca” in the future and may be used to link up with a labour camp in the area.
Reports have also been cited as saying infrastructure in Tashigang (Zhaaxigang), east of Ladakh, in western Tibet, was being upgraded. Located close to Tashigang is Shiquanhe (Tibetan: Sengge Khabab, the main town and administrative seat of Ngari Prefecture); here too, the upgradation of military infrastructure was reported to be evident.
Meanwhile, new Chinese dual-use ‘Xiaokang’ border villages are also regularly being built and older ones being “populated” along the disputed stretches of the LAC, especially in the eastern sector, to reinforce PLA positions as well as lay claim to territory, reported the timesofindia.com Apr 29.
Previous reports have noted that China has been building as many as 628 such border defence villages to fortify the borders of occupied Tibet with India and Bhutan over the last few years.
“All this clearly indicates PLA will continue to permanently station troops in forward locations along the LAC, even if eventually there is some sort of disengagement at the two major persisting face-off sites at Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh,” the report quoted an unnamed Indian source as saying.
There are currently 50,000 to 60,000 PLA troops with heavy weaponry forward deployed in the western (Ladakh) and central sectors (Uttarakhand, Himachal) as well as 90,000 soldiers in the eastern one (Sikkim, Arunachal), the report noted.