Chinese President inspects readiness of PLA troops along border with India

New Delhi, January 20

Chinese President Xi Jinping held a rare video conversation with soldiers deployed along the India-China border in eastern Ladakh and inspected their combat readiness, reported the Chinese official media on Friday.

The conversation between the Chinese President and the troops took place on Wednesday. Xi spoke to the Xinjiang border command, a Chinese navy formation and an air force aviation brigade, asking them to “remain alert and be ready for combat”.

Basing himself at the PLA headquarters in the capital, Xi’s only conversation with PLA ground forces was with troops at a border defence station in Khunjerab under the Xinjiang military command. Xi is also the commander-in-chief of the PLA.

Xi observed that the area had been changing in recent years and asked the troops how it had impacted them on the ground. In reply, the contingent leader told the Chinese President that they were now carrying out dynamic and round-the-clock monitoring of the border.

Xi asked them about their border patrol and management work and said the soldiers were “models of border defence” and encouraged them to “persist in their efforts and make new contributions”, reported the Chinese media.

Troops from this command are among those manning the border areas along eastern Ladakh in the western sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), where the Galwan valley incident and several instances of standoff between the PLA and Indian Army have taken place since 2020. Barring two pending dispute points at Depsang and Demchok, there has been disengagement at five other points so far.

Xi had a meeting with top commanders of Xinjiang military district in June when he had visited Urumqi.

Border defence

• Chinese President Xi Jinping held a virtual interaction with troops on Wednesday, reported Chinese media
• Calling the soldiers ‘models of border defence’, he encouraged them to ‘persist’ in their efforts
• A contingent leader told him troops were carrying out dynamic and round-the-clock monitoring of the border

Water war next?

• China has accelerated work on a huge dam on the Mabja Zangbo river, just short of the tri-junction between India and Nepal, says a Kathmandu-based online magazine.
• This dam is very close to the Kalapani region of Uttarakhand which could help China establish complete control over the water in the region, intelligence analyst Damien Symon claims.
• There are reports that China is also preparing to commence work on a massive dam near Arunachal on the Yarlung Tsangpo river. tns