China builds villages near LAC, strengthens military facilities
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China has combined a policy of building villages close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) from Xinjiang to Bhutan while simultaneously bolstering military facilities and creating dualuse infrastructure such as airports to keep up the pressure on India, people familiar with the developments have said.
Details of the way in which China systematically pumped in money for almost a decade to build “villages of moderate prosperity” along the 4,000km border of Tibet, most of which aligns with the LAC, emerged in a new policy paper on Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) released by the Chinese State Council Information Office on Friday.
By the end of 2020, many border villages in the remote region were better connected to highways, and all had access to mobile communication, according to the policy paper titled Tibet Since 1951: Liberation, Development and Prosperity.
Indian security agencies too, have gathered extensive information on the campaign to speed up building of border villages along the LAC, ranging from Xinjiang to Arunachal Pradesh. Work on houses and roads to these villages is being completed at a rapid pace even during the pandemic, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. “Residents are moved into the villages, mostly located in disputed regions, from other areas. Some are at a short distance from strategic features on the Indian side of the LAC,” one of the people said.
“We have received inputs on such villages coming up on the western sector of the LAC in Xinjiang and Tibet and the eastern sector in Arunachal Pradesh. The worrying aspect is the new pressure on Bhutan in the eastern sector of its border with China, which appears to be aimed at making Bhutan give up territory in the Doklam region,” the person added.
The pressure on Bhutan is being mounted apparently with an eye on the planned 25th round of boundary talks with China, dates for which are yet to be decided, the people said.
Several villages have come up in the tri-junction between India, Bhutan and China, and a new village is said to have come up close to Longju, near Arunachal Pradesh, which witnessed the first clash between India and China in 1959, according to India-based Tibet expert Claude Arpi.
The policy paper said 118,800 km of highways were built to provide access to all administrative villages in TAR. Ninety-four percent of towns and 76% of administrative villages have direct access to asphalt and concrete roads. “A number of feeder airports have been built, including Bamda Airport in Qamdo, Mainling Airport in Nyingchi, Peace Airport in Xigaze, and Gunsa Airport in Ngari,” the paper said. Many new airports are located close to border areas, especially with India.
The people cited above said Chinese authorities also have plans to build three more airports in Lhunze, Tingri and Burang counties as part of an expansion project that will involve the construction of a second runway at Lhasa Gonggar airport. “These are all dual-use infrastructure and can be used by the military in contingencies,” said a second person.
At the same time, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) air force is retiring its ageing Chengdu J-7 jets at an air brigade in Lintao under the Western Theatre Command, which covers Tibet and Xinjiang, and replacing them with Shenyang J-16 and Chengdu J-20 jets. “This will bring in more capable aircraft for operations along the LAC, where the older jets can’t perform very well,” the second person said.
There are also reports of China developing a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) specifically for use in Tibet. The UAV reportedly completed its first flight at Gar Gunsa in TAR. “The UAV took off from an elevation of 4,700 metres and completed its task of patrolling, control and search in the Kailash mountain region,” the second person said.
The policy paper’s statement on border villages matches recent reports, many based on independent satellite imagery, that show China is building villages along the LAC to bolster its contested territorial claims. BEIJING/NEW DELHI: