Reuters file photo

Beijing, July 17

China’s military today said it had conducted live-fire exercises in the remote mountainous Tibet region to test its strike capability on plateaus, amid the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted the 11-hour-long live-fire exercises at an altitude of 5,000 metres on the plateau in Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, aimed at improving the combat capability on such locations, the military said.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The exercise was conducted by a ground combat brigade of the PLA Tibet Regional Command this month and involved scenarios such as rapid deployment, multi-unit joint strike and anti-aircraft defence, state-run China Daily quoted a PLA press release as saying.The exercise effectively tested the brigade’s joint strike capability on plateaus, according to the press release. The brigade that conducted the drills was from the PLA’s Tibet Military Command and is one of China’s two plateau mountain brigades.The PLA Tibet command guards the Line of Actual Control (LAC) of the India-China border along several sections connecting the mountainous Tibetan region.Analysts believe that the drill is an apparent attempt by the military to reassure the Chinese public about the combat readiness of its troops.“Showing an opponent that you are combat ready is more likely to prevent an actual battle,” Wang Dehua, South Asia studies expert at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said.Broadcasting the drill on CCTV was also likely designed to keep the public happy, he said. “It could also reassure the Chinese people that a strong PLA force is there, capable and determined to defend Chinese territory,” Wang told Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.The CCTV report did not disclose the location of the drills but said the brigade responsible for frontline combat missions has long been stationed around the middle and lower reaches of the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Zangbo in Chinese). Brahmaputra flows into India from Arunachal Pradesh border.“The PLA wanted to demonstrate it could easily overpower its Indian counterparts,” Beijing-based military commentator Zhou Chenming told the Post.The Chinese force that took part in the drill is stationed in the Lizhi region of eastern Tibet, close to the stand-off, the Post said.China has a clear advantage in terms of speed of movement, firepower, and logistics, Zhou said. “By staging a small-scale drill, China wants to control the problem and lower the risk of shots being fired,” he said.Separately, Tibet’s mobile communication agency conducted a drill on July 10 in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, where members of the agency practiced setting up a temporary mobile network to secure communications in an emergency.China and India have been engaged in a standoff in the Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector, where Indian troops stopped road construction by Chinese soldiers on June 16. — PTI 

Amid Sikkim standoff, key ITBP post restored

• The government has restored a crucial senior-level post in the Sino-India border guarding force ITBP after three years, a development seen as strengthening the paramilitary in the wake of frequent military standoffs between the two sides
• RK Mishra, a 1986-batch IPS officer, on Monday took over as the new additional director general of force with the strength of 90,000 personnel
• The lone ADG post of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police was diverted to the NDRF in February, 2014 by the Union Home Ministry, under which the two forces function PTI