China moved huge military hardware into Tibet after Sikkim standoff: Report

Times of India ^ | Jul 19, 2017

[TigerLikesRooster]

China moved huge military hardware into Tibet after Sikkim standoff: Report

PTI | Updated: Jul 19, 2017, 07:43 PM IST

BEIJING: The Chinese Army moved tens of thousands of tonnes of military hardware into the remote mountainous Tibet region after the standoff with Indian troops in the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector+ , the mouthpiece of the PLA+ said today.

The vast haul was transported to a region south of the Kunlun Mountains in northern Tibet by the Western Theatre Command - which oversees the restive regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and handles border issues with India, reported the PLA Daily, the official mouthpiece of Chinese military.

The move took place late last month and involved hardware being moved simultaneously by road and rail from across the entire region, the report said.

China's state-run media has stepped up its rhetoric against India in recent weeks but there was no way to confirm the veracity of such claims.

Early this week, state-run CCTV had broadcast People's Liberation Army troops taking part in heavy military exercises using live ammunition on the Tibetan plateau.

Read this story in Gujarati

The location was not far from the disputed Doklam area where Chinese and Indian troops are locked in a standoff+ , the Hong-Kong based South China Morning Post reported.

The PLA Daily report, however, did not say whether the movement of the military equipment was to support the exercise or for other reasons.

Wang Dehua, an expert on South Asia studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said the scale of the troop and equipment movement showed how much easier it is for China to defend its western borders.

"Military operations are all about logistics," he said. "Now there is much better logistics support to the Tibet region."

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face- off in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[libh8er]

India is not some island in the South China Sea for them to gobble up.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Predictably China is blaming India for the current crisis:

Hindu nationalism risks pushing India into war with China

By Yu Ning Source:Global Times Published: 2017/7/19 23:43:39

Since Indian troops illegally crossed into the Doklam area, China and India have been locked in a stand-off for over a month. Regardless of China's call urging India to withdraw its troops that have crossed the border, New Delhi has continued its provocation. At the same time, anti-China sentiments are rising in India with an upsurge of nationalism.

India harbors deep strategic suspicion toward China. It considers China as a rival and a potential enemy. For a long time, it has hyped that China is pursuing what is called the "String of Pearls" to encircle India. Despite China's goodwill in inviting India to join the Belt and Road initiative, India insists on interpreting the project as a part of China's strategic containment and encirclement of it.

Since India's defeat in the Sino-Indian War of 1962, some Indians have been stuck in a zero-sum mentality in dealing with China. The war inflicted lingering pain on India and it became a hard knot to untie, leading to an ingrained suspicion of Chinese strategy. China's development is seen as a misfortune to India. The faster China grows, the more fearful they are.

Nationalist fervor that demands revenge against China has taken root in India since the border war. The election of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fueled the country's nationalist sentiments. Modi took advantage of rising Hindu nationalism to come to power. This, on one hand, has enhanced his prestige and ability to control the country, but on the other, has made India more subject to the influence of conservatives, thus hampering reform. In diplomacy, New Delhi is demanded to act tougher in foreign relations, especially toward countries like Pakistan and China. The border row this time is an action targeted at China that caters to the demand of India's religious nationalists.

The Modi government can do nothing if religious nationalism becomes extreme, as shown in its failure to curb violent incidents against Muslims since he came to power in 2014.

Where the China-India competition goes hinges on each side's strength and wisdom. India is weaker than China in terms of national strength, but its strategists and politicians have shown no wisdom in preventing India's China policy from being kidnapped by rising nationalism. This will put India's own interests in jeopardy. India should be careful and not let religious nationalism push the two countries into war.

[libh8er]

I dont know if they knew this before.

[gaijin]

[hinckley buzzard]

"Defending China's western borders" is not what this is about. This is about Chinese aggression. Unfortunately, mounting an offensive in high mountain passes is a daunting task, unlike taking on the Tibetan plateau against a weak opponent. And all the hardware in the world will not amount to much when mountainsides can be made to tumble down on you. This is why Nazi Germany left Switzerland alone during WW II. No sense trying to defeat the Alps. Ditto the Himalayas

[entropy12]

So it will be a war between the largest communist autocracy and the largest democracy on earth. If war starts, India should stay away from military targets and bomb only the manufacturing plants in China. China is a export dependent economy. If China loses half of the $500 Billion export surplus with just the United States, it will be a huge catastrophe.

India should note that the factories have no anti-aircraft weapons, and will be much easier to destroy than military targets. That is what United States did in WWII to Germany & Japan, and both were unable to sustain their capacity support the war effort.

[Cvengr]

Remember the Google Earth image in China of the giant sand table of passes into India ...about 5-10 yrs ago. Sand Table was about 40 acres large and they walked their officers through the entire routes.

[entropy12]

India’s nationalism is the best thing going for them. It makes people more patriotic and keeps radical Islam in check. There are no hordes of Muslim immigrants in India akin to France, Germany, Sweden etc causing terrorism.

The indigent Muslims of India know from experience what happens to them at the hands of Hindu nationalists when Muslims perform terrorist acts. When Hindu pilgrims traveling in a train were torched near Dohad by Muslims, the Hindu’s killed ten times as many Muslims in Gujerat.

[fatez]

I think its time for Trump to talk to China about a nuclear South Korea, nuclear Japan and a very well armed Taiwan.

[BBell]

When Hindu pilgrims traveling in a train were torched near Dohad by Muslims, the Hindu’s killed ten times as many Muslims in Gujerat.

That is the only way to handle the muzzies. It's the only thing muzzies understand.

[BenLurkin]

Apparently the dispute dates at least as far back as 1904.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_expedition_to_Tibet

[Moorings]

Apparently, the crisis started when China marched into an area that is part of Bhutan - a very small country between China and India. The Bhutanese could not stop the Chinese marching in to build a road, so they invoked a military treaty they have with India.

This Chinese incursion continues the practice China has of encroaching on the territory of their neighbors. They feel that the rest of the world will not do anything but talk, to avoid starting a war or angering China. After all they were able to take over all of Tibet and the world did not smack them down.

China feels that other countries are terrified of starting a war with China, so they will bully and intimidate with their large military and economic might, to force neighboring countries to concede their territory to China.

[TigerLikesRooster]

[TigerLikesRooster]

DILEMMA OF A TWO FRONT WAR

Jul 14, 2017 - 1:39 am EDT

By Maj Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

“Obsessed with Pakistan, India has grossly neglected the real adversary. In point-to-point skirmishes and standoffs, battle- hardened Indian soldiers will deter, if not defeat, the PLA. However, across a broad front spectrum in an unlikely all-out war, it is advantage China”, Says the author.

At a time when China is threatening to teach India another lesson and warning not to engage in a two-front conflict over the standoff in Doklam, our Service Chiefs, it seems, are not on the same page about fighting a two-front war especially as Beijing might try to emulate the New Delhi-Thimpu alliance in “disputed territory” with one with Islamabad in PoK. While General Bipin Rawat has more than once asserted the Army’s preparedness for a two-front war, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa has highlighted the critical shortfall in the number of fighter squadrons — 32 against the required 42 squadrons — to dominate a two-front conflict, saying: “It is akin to a cricket team playing with seven players instead of 11”. The deficiency in air assets has existed for decades but this is the first time an Air Chief has related it to a two-front war.

The Chief of Naval Staff, Sunil Lanba, when asked about the disparity in preparedness of the services, said: “The way national security is being handled is not commensurate with the security environment which is extremely serious at the moment”. Recently, Gen Rawat told a military audience that the military was not getting enough funds for modernization — repeated ad nauseum by every Chief — due to the perception that expenditure on defence is a burden on the economy. This set the cat among the pigeons as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a regular fill-in for Defence Minister, is believed to have told Gen Rawat: “Don’t worry about funds. When you run out, call me”. In the mid-1990s, when the Naval Shipyard order books had gone dry, CNS, admiral Vijay Shekhawat went public about the Navy’s operational deficiencies, prompting Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to invite him to discuss dwindling fleet numbers. Ad hocism has become the hallmark of modernization of the military.

Power differential

The Chinese are constantly reminding India about the power differential — military, economic and infrastructural — between them. Being obsessed with Pakistan, India has grossly neglected the real adversary. The reason for this is the institutionalized absence of strategic thinking and higher political direction of war and conflict in the face of growing threats and challenges to internal and external security. Prime Minister Modi’s boast about big defence reforms is hollow: had he been serious about defence, he would have named a full-time Defence Minister. The appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff has not overcome the hesitation of history — read bureaucracy. The country has never produced a “Defence White Paper” or done a “Strategic Defence and Security” review. Something called the “Raksha Mantri’s Directive” masquerades as higher political direction on deterrence and war. This bit of literature drafted by the military has its origin in 1983, with periodic face-lifts to make it contemporary.

The Parrikar doctrine covering surgical strikes was included in the Joint Military Doctrine, scripted by the Integrated Defence Staff, which attracted extraordinary flak from the defence community for being substandard. In its present organization, each service essentially fights single-service combat. In the last border skirmish at Kargil, the Army’s operation was called Vijay while the IAF campaign in support was named Safed Saagar. So much for jointness. So the Raksha Mantri’s Directive passes off as political guidance by the highest echelons of government. When I once asked a former Air Chief how he evolved his service’s span of responsibility, he replied: “Most of the time, from speeches made by the Prime Minister during the Combined Commanders’ Conferences.”

Are we surprised that while President Xi Jinping who heads the Central Military Commission, has personally ordered and supervised the reorganization of the combat formations facing India, reducing them from three commands to one command — a single Western Theatre Command headed by the powerful Gen Xhao Zongqi — the China front in India is managed by four Army and three Air commands deployed at seven locations.

Integrated command

A forward-looking proposal made by a defence committee recommending three integrated operational commands — North, West and South instead of 17 single service commands — was shot out of hand by (no guesses) the Air Force. The CDS and accompanying Joint Staff ordered by the UK in 1984 was a fait accompli. It was introduced by a political class which understood defence and strategic security. In India, countless defence reforms are languishing for want of decision making.

It is instructive to recall how the two-front strategy was formally enunciated in December 2009 by the Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor. It followed the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ordered the Service Chiefs to prepare for war. Defence Minister AK Antony then had “preparation for a two-front war” added in his Directive but did little to implement it. Both in 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan despite the collusive threat from China, there was no cross-border intervention by China though sizeable formations of the Eastern Command remained deployed against it and forces could not be switched to the west or east for fighting in East Pakistan in 1971. In a real two-front war, swing forces in east and west will not be able to reinforce either front and only dedicated formations will fight the war. Given the paucity in current force levels, inadequate sophistry of combat support and terrain and infrastructure handicaps, it will be an uphill task to match the PLA’s strength and versatility across a 3,488-km front of undefined borders.

In point-to-point skirmishes and standoffs, battle-hardened Indian soldiers will deter if not defeat the PLA. Across a broad front spectrum in an unlikely all-out war, it is advantage China unless India is prepared to rethink its “no first use” nuclear doctrine. As an offset in the western front, Gen Rawat has suggested creating a two-front situation for Pakistan: either in Afghanistan or Iran. Doklam may go the 1986 Sumdorong Chu way; the 10-month-long standoff challenging the Chinese intrusion at Thandrong, west of Tawang over the interpretation of watershed, without a shot being fired. India need not invoke its doubtful capacity to fight a two-front war; instead, speedily augment its deterrence against China. This may not win votes for Modi but it will prevent Chinese pinpricks that he famously called “toothache”.

(The author is a former Major General of the Indian Army, and a radio and television commentator, and a columnist on defence and security issues. He is founder-member of the Defence Planning Staff in the Ministry of Defence)

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

There is some truth in those comments. Remember that Modi is a fundamentalist Hindu. The BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) is the political arm of the RSS. The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) was founded in 1925 to establish an exclusively Hindu state. DJS (Dharm Jagran Samiti) is a wing of the RSS and Uttar Pradesh DJS head Rajeshwar Singh said in December 2014, “Our target is to make India a Hindu Rashtra by 2021. The Muslims and Christians don’t have any right to stay here. So they would either be converted to Hinduism or forced to run away from here,”

Ion’t trust the Chicoms nor do I trust the ruling party in India. The good news of this standoff is that Rajeshwar Singh’s plans to forcibly convert or expel Christians by 2021, will be put on hold. From my POV, a border war between China, Pak and India for a couple of years, would not be the worst thing that could happen. It would keep their minds off attacking the Christians and possibly reduce their offensive capabilities toward the rest of the world.

Quote from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2879597/We-free-India-Muslims-Christians-2021-DJS-leader-vows-continue-ghar-wapsi-plans-restore-Hindu-glory.html#ixzz4nLRQVUOZ

[TigerLikesRooster]

That means they are better suited to confront China.

[entropy12]

Absolutely, unequivocally, unvarnished truth! Based on 1400 years of experience dealing with the Muzzies in India, brutal response to their terrorist actions is the ONLY thing which works.