WASHINGTON: China has deployed more troops and enhanced military capabilities along the border with India, a top US military official said in an assessment that suggests Beijing is ramping up its geo-political ambitions in the region.
PTI FILEIndian and Chinese soldiers at the ceremonial Border Personnel Meetings (BPMs) in Jammu and Kashmir.In an annual report to the Congress on military and security developments in China, the US department of defense noted that tensions remained along disputed portions of the Sino-Indian border and that Beijing is continuing with the trend of “conducting submarine deployments to the Indian Ocean”.
The report also said that Chinese officials are also eyeing logistics hubs in friendly countries such as Pakistan to bolster long-range naval deployments.
“And as the report details, we have noticed an increase in capability and force posture by the Chinese military in areas close to the border with India,” Abraham M Denmark, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told a news conference held in Washington on Friday after the 2016 report was submitted to Congress.
“China most likely will seek to establish additional naval logistics hubs in countries with which it has a longstanding friendly relationship and similar strategic interests, such as Pakistan, and a precedent for hosting foreign militaries,” it said.
The report further noted that “India’s nuclear force is an additional driver behind China’s nuclear force modernisation”.
Denmark acknowledged it was difficult to determine how much of China’s military decision-making is influenced by the border dispute with India and resultant tensions.
The report noted that tensions remained between China and India along their 4,057km border over Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims is part of Tibet, and the Askai Chin region despite an increase in bilateral political and economic ties.
The report said China had continued to conduct submarine deployments to the Indian Ocean in 2015, “ostensibly in support of its counter-piracy patrols”.
The department of defense contended the submarines were probably “conducting area familiarisation, and demonstrating an emerging capability both to protect China’s SLOCs and to increase China’s power projection into the Indian Ocean”.
