Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continues to build more troops shelters along the frontier as part of its ongoing overall consolidation of military positions and upgrade of air bases facing India amid the border dispute between India and China in eastern Ladakh and ongoing military and diplomatic talks to resolve it. It also strengthening its airbases near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
A report published stated that China has constructed modular container-based accommodations for its soldiers in at least eight more forward locations along the LAC opposite eastern Ladakh. The newly-constructed troop shelters range from Wahab Zilga near the Karakoram Pass in the north to Piue, Hot Springs, Chang La, Tashigong, Manza and Churup as one goes down south along the LAC. “Each location has 80 to 84 containers arranged in seven clusters,” said a source. Meanwhile, an IANS report stated that the PLA recently carried out a night battle exercise at over 16,000 feet in the Xinjiang region. Ever since India strongly reacted to China’s unilateral attempts to alter the status quo in eastern Ladakh, the PLA has been rapidly enhancing military infrastructure at the LAC. India has also strongly responded to the Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh and deployed around 50,000 troops, frontline fighter aircraft, anti-missile systems, artillery guns and other heavy military equipment near the LAC.
Both India and China continue to maintain around 50,000 soldiers each, backed by howitzers, tanks and surface-to-air missile systems in the “immediate depth areas” along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. Also both armies have been regularly rotating their troops due to the harsh terrain and oxygen deprivation in the high-altitude area, while deploying aircraft and drones to keep tabs on each other.
