By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Sept 8: The recent military show in Tibet that included fighter jets dropping missiles, drones and howitzers during a high-altitude drill by the Tibet Military District was intended as ‘warning’ to India, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. The PLA Daily website on Monday showed footage of several units from the People’s Liberation Army occupying a key command centre at an altitude of 4700 meters.
In the report, researcher Zhou Chenming from Yuan Wang military science and technology said that the recent military drill was a response to the spy drones over Chinese territory by the Indian military. “The PLA has a military advantage when facing the challenges from their Indian counterpart, but the PLA doesn’t want to fight with India. It is a big trading partner of China, and China needs the Indian market. So the drill is just a warning to the Indian side,” Zhou said.
The military observers in the video stated that the drill involved infantry, artillery, army aviation, special operation forces, electronic warfare, engineers and chemical defense units, without mentioning when it was conducted. “In the video clip, the Tibetan artillery troops showed that they are able to use long-range rocket launchers to stage precision strikes, while air defence missile systems could knock down incoming cruise missiles from the hostile side,” former PLA instructor Song Zhongping stated in the video.
The footage also showed new weapons, including the Type PHL-03 multiple launch rocket system, and PCL-181 vehicle-mounted howitzers. Zhao Xianfu, a Tibet Military District brigade commander reportedly said, “We want to test our new equipment, and the rapid response, mobility and integration in joint cooperation among different fighting units in real combat. Our next step is to explore new approaches for fighting under extreme conditions in the high-altitude areas, to further boost the military region’s transformation and development.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday appointed General Wang Haijiang as the new Commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theatre Command, which oversees the borders with India, according to Chinese official media reports in Beijing.
One Response
The recent Chinese military exercises in occupied Tibet are China’s way of showing its displeasure with India in its endeavour to gang up with the US, Japan and Australia. The Chinese strategy is always to keep countries divided so it’s much easier for them to deal individually and bully them to accept their demands.
India has long been in the good books of China for blindly accepting Chinese conquest of Tibet. In fact it was India which gave credence to Chinese claims over Tibet. India has no real foreign policy. It only reacts but has no foreign policy of its own. If there was one, it was the so called non- alignment which just means, just be yourself and don’t bother about anybody! This suited the Chinese perfectly and they encouraged the Indians to continue with this policy for seventy years. The Chinese even called it an “independent” policy in order to flatter the Indians. Nehru lived up to the three monkey analogy of neither speak, nor hear nor see what’s happening in Tibet during his Prime Ministership and gave a free hand to communist China to commit appalling atrocities on the people of Tibet.
Owing to the Chinese aggression in Eastern Ladakh, the Indians got the first test of the Chinese deception that was used all these years to get what the Chinese wanted. Now, China was in full control of Tibet with missile batteries in Nakchu, seven airports across Tibet with stealth fighter jets stationed on the Indo-Tibet border, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and half a million troops stationed in occupied Tibet, China felt emboldened by its militarisation of occupied Tibet and encroached on Indian territory. The Indian side has always treaded with extreme caution even to speak about Tibet. For they assumed that if the Indians bow to the Chinese demand, the Chinese will not bother them. This was India’s foreign policy if there ever was one on China!
The Galwan incident shook the Indians out of their stupor and caught them unawares. For the first time they realised, they couldn’t trust the Chinese anymore!!! All the agreements brokered between them on a “tranquil border” was in tatters. The Chinese murdered unarmed Indian troops with nail studded batons of biblical antiquity. India was left with no choice but turn somewhere to shore-up both military and diplomatic support. The grouping of four democracies in the Indo-Pacific region started to emerge and after much dithering by the Indians, it is now a reality. The leaders of US, India, Japan and Australia are soon going to meet in the US capital to thrash out plans to deal with Chinese expansionism and military aggression around the world.
China’s main goal in its massive military built-up, biological weapons production such as COVID-19, supersonic missile batteries, submarines, stealth fighters, amphibious warfare ships are all preparation for an eventual invasion of Taiwan in its attempt to “unify” and also drive the US out of Asia. It feels the time is ripe as the US departure from Afghanistan has made it look like the US is weak and humiliated. It has reckoned that the US power has diminished and its in a position to challenge US supremacy.
The US on the other hand is stepping up its guard against Chinese belligerence by cobbling together like minded democracies and others who are willing to join to create a NATO of sorts to challenge Chinese aggression on Taiwan. India seems to be caught in a bind as to whether throw itself with the Quod or retain a semblance of its non-alignment stand. With the Taliban coming to power in Afghanistan, perhaps, there is not much choice left anymore other than throw the gauntlet. If the Quod becomes a United front against China, the Chinese will think twice before they invade Taiwan. The power balance between China and the four nation Quod coterie is clearly tipped in favour of the later. That is why, the Chinese want to break the Quod axis in order to weaken them to the point where the Chinese feel assured of victory in the event of an invasion.
The Chinese prefer winning their goal without firing a shot so they will be lots of bluster and intimidation as part of their psychological warfare. While this is true, nobody should assume that the Chinese don’t mean business. They mean business and must be taken very seriously. The moment the US and its allies show weakness through division, that’s when the Chinese will seize the opportunity.
While military maneuverers are important, the US and its allies must work to support the desperate people under Chinese subjugation and Chinese dissident groups to overthrow the dictatorship in China. There has to be a plan to dislodge the regime which is no different from the Taliban in Afghanistan. Without removing the cause of the present danger posed by the CCP, the danger will always be present as long as the CCP regime thrives by enslaving the Chinese people and others like the Tibetans and Ugyurs. Democratic Governments must support the people of China while undermining the CCP criminal syndicate.