China firms up position along LAC: Pentagon

New Delhi, November 5

The US Department of Defence has said that despite the ongoing diplomatic and military dialogue to reduce border tension, China continues to take incremental and tactical actions to press its claims at the LAC.

A Pentagon report said China refused to withdraw any forces until India’s forces were withdrawn behind its version of the LAC. China also wants India to stop all infrastructure improvement in the area. The “Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China – 2021” claims that China is taking “incremental and tactical actions to press its claims at the LAC” and has built civilian villages between Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh. India was among more than half-a-dozen countries that China was riling with its aggressive behaviour, it said, while also mentioning Beijing’s problems with Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines.

The report also warned of a Chinese overdrive to expand its nuclear arsenal as it seeks to match the strength of a “strong enemy” by modernising its weapons and equipment that are networked in a “systems of systems” and to prepare for “informed” and “intelligible” warfare. — TNS