The interesting thing to me is that the Chinese helicopters can operate at that altitude.
Ladakh is the top of the world.
Nothing like China provoking both Japan and India (to say nothing of Vietnam) in border disputes...
Who’s running their foreign office?
9,800 feet. Did China steal helicopter technology from the U.S.?
High-Altitude Helicopter Rescue Sets Record
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/record-setting-high-altitude-helicopter-rescue-in-alaska/
Flying airliners at altitudes of 35,000 feet is routine. But helicopters, with their relatively small rotary wings, struggle in thin air. Hermansky was flying a Eurocopter AS350 B3, commonly known as an “AStar.” The same model made headlines several years ago when a test pilot briefly touched down on the summit of Mt. Everest.
India’s new Dhruv helicopter is capable of ferrying troops and supplies up to Siachen, and it’s domestically-developed. China’s got more mature aircraft development capabilities, so high-altitude stuff is probably more within their reach. In any case, most of the Leh/Ladakh area is well within the ceiling of most military helicopters, though they’d have to fly between peaks to get in there.