Anurag Kumar
General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff, affirmed on Tuesday that there has been no de-escalation of the Chinese Army from India’s northern borders since May 2020, and that the current situation poses a challenge to the Indian Army. He stated that negotiations are underway with the PLA commanders to ensure that Chinese troops withdraw from East Ladakh’s Demchok (Charging Ninglung Nullah junction) and Depsang Bulge region.
While it is true that PLA deployment in East Ladakh is at the same level as in 2020, the same cannot be said for the eastern sector, where three combined armed brigades (approximately 4,500 men plus artillery and rockets in each CAB) were inducted by the PLA prior to the 20th National Party Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2022. In order to transform Tibet and Sinkiang aka Xinjiang province into military fortresses, the PLA reserve personnel were transferred from the Southern and Eastern Theater Commands to the Western Theater Command facing India.
China observers initially believed that the additional reserve troops across Siliguri Corridor and Arunachal Pradesh would be withdrawn after President Xi Jinping was re-elected for a third term, but this assessment proved to be incorrect. The three CABs are currently stationed along India’s eastern border with China, and the current assessment is that the deployment is permanent.
The additional PLA deployments in the eastern sector, including the Tawang region, have also compelled the Indian Army to disband its eastern Army Command in preparation for the Chinese military threat, should the red flag be raised. The Indian Army has also fortified the entire sensitive Siliguri corridor with missile and rocket regiments to prevent the military from being caught off guard by sudden Chinese movement towards Jampheri Ridge across Torsa Nullah on the Doklam plateau or the Amu Chu valley in north Bengal.
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Even though the PLA has attempted to avoid disengaging from CNN junction and Depsang Bulge by claiming it is a legacy issue or occurred prior to the Chinese Army’s aggression in May 2020, the ground situation in both of these areas was altered by Chinese troop deployments in 2020. By deploying additional personnel in both Demchok and Depsang Bulge, the PLA has strengthened its positions on the ground and placed military obstacles in the way of Indian Army patrols in these two regions.
According to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, India-China relations will remain anomalous until Indian Army patrolling rights to CNN junction and Depsang Bulge are restored and the PLA de-escalate along the 3488-kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC). The government of Narendra Modi has repeatedly and firmly conveyed this message to the Xi Jinping regime. The projectile is in Chinese territory.
