New Delhi: China has not scaled down its huge military presence along the LAC with India since the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020, US department of defence said on Wednesday, adding PLA remains focused on developing capabilities to dissuade, deter or defeat any third-party intervention in the entire Indo-Pacific region. “PLA has not drawn down its positions or troop numbers since the 2020 clash and has built infrastructure and support facilities to maintain multiple brigade deployments along the LAC,” said Pentagon annual report on China’s military capabilities.
TOI had last month reported that despite the troop disengagement in Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh, the PLA continues to maintain around 1.2 lakh soldiers, along with tanks, howitzers, surface-to-air missiles and other heavy weapon systems, along the 3,488-km-long LAC.
This includes over 20 combined arms brigades (CABs) in forward locations and training areas along the western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal) sectors of the LAC. “A couple of CABs may have gone back, but the overwhelming bulk remain there,” a source said.
The Pentagon report, on its part, noted that China’s Western Theatre Command’s primary focus was “on securing” the frontier with India. “In recent years, differing perceptions between India and China regarding border demarcations have facilitated multiple clashes, force build-ups, and military infrastructure construction,” it said.
The India-China frontier, of course, finds only brief mention in the Pentagon report, which dwells upon China’s overall military capabilities. China continues to rapidly enhance its military capability to project power globally, despite a shrinking economy and corruption scandals, it said.
China has demonstrated an “increasing willingness to use military coercion and inducements” to achieve its aims, while emphasising a greater global role for itself. “The PLA continues developing the capabilities to conduct military operations deeper into the Indo-Pacific region and globally,” the Pentagon said.
China also continues to modernise, diversify and expand its nuclear forces rapidly. It now has over 600 operational nuclear warheads in its stockpile, and will increase it to over 1,000 by 2035. “The PLA seeks a larger and more diverse nuclear force of systems ranging from low-yield precision strike missiles to ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) with multi-megaton yields to provide it multiple options on the escalation ladder,” the report said.
On the counter-space front, China has continued developing capabilities that can “contest or deny” other nations access to and operations in the space domain. These weapons include direct ascent anti-satellite missiles, co-orbital satellites, electronic warfare, and directed energy systems like lasers.
The PLA, in fact, has sought to modernise its capabilities and improve its proficiencies across all warfare domains 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.
China, incidentally, already has the largest navy in the world, with a battle force of over 370 ships and submarines, including more than 140 major surface combatants.
