Monitoring Desk
In a major development, China has built a military outpost in Pangong Tso along eastern Ladakh and West Tibet to keep an eye on Indian activities and advancement at one of the flashpoints and disputed border between the two countries.
Strained relations between India and China
Relations between the two countries remained strained after India constructed a new road to a high-altitude air base in the Himalayan region, spanning an ill-defined and 3,440-kilometre-long disputed border.
The army of the two big powers often comes face-to-face in the disputed region abundant with rivers, lakes and snowcaps.
India is competing to build infrastructure along the disputed border, which the Asian giant sees as an intrusion.
Satellite pictures of Chinese outpost
Satellite pictures, obtained by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)’s china power project, which were shared with NatSec Daily, showed Chinese People’s Liberation Army had constructed a headquarters and barracks to house its troops at Pangong Tso. This remote area stretches across the Line of Actual Control between the two big but hostile countries.
The CSIS said the Chinese forces’ headquarters in the Himalayas could house a division, depending on the outpost’s size.
Experts agreed that through the forward-command post, China could more easily keep an eye on India in the long-disputed border between the two countries.
So far it has stationed its troops along the LAC, and the latest encampment is firmly within Chinese territory.
Expert on the country’s military and director of the security studies programme at MIT, M Talor Fravel said that it appeared consistent with the country’s efforts to improve infrastructure near the LAC in the eastern section, where the Chinese military was digging in for long-term to have the means to react to any contingency in case India resorts to violence.
CSIS experts said the country razed a temporary camp at the latest outpost site in May 2020 and then started construction on more permanent facilities. Based on the October 4 satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies, it looked like the work was done. The buildings were surrounded by trenches, equipment and weapons-storage areas, and the outpost also appeared to host a full division of armored personnel carriers.
