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Washington
DC: China has moved new advanced longer range CSS-5
missiles close to the borders with India and developed contingency
plans to shift airborne forces at short notice to the region,
according to Pentagon.
Despite increased political and economic relationship between India
and China, the Pentagon in a report to the US Congress said,
tensions remain along the Sino-India borders with rising instances
of border violation and aggressive border patrolling by Chinese
soldiers.
However, a senior defence department official told reporters that
the US has not observed any anomalous increase in military
capabilities along the Sino-India border.
Noting that China continues to maintain its position on what its
territorial claim is, the official said, the two capitals - Beijing
and New Delhi - have been able to manage this dispute, in a way,
using confidence-building measures and diplomatic mechanisms to be
able to maintain relative stability in that border area.
"But it's something that China continues to watch; but I wouldn't
say that there's anything in this report that demonstrates a spike
or an anomalous increase in military capabilities along the border."
"It's something that China's paying very careful attention to. It's
obviously something that India is paying careful attention to as
well," the Senior Defense Department official said.
In its annual report, the US defence department said, to improve
regional deterrence, the PLA has replaced older liquid-fueled,
nuclear capable CCS-3 intermediate range missiles with more advanced
and survivable fueled CSS-5 MRBMs.
"China is currently engaged in massive road and rail infrastructure
development along the Sino-India border primarily to facilitate
economic development in western China: improved roads also support
PLA operations," the Pentagon said.
The report presented to the Congress said despite increased
political and economic relations over the years between China and
India, tensions remain along their shared 4,057 km border, most
notably over Arunachal Pradesh, which China asserts as part of Tibet
and therefore of China, and over the Aksai Chin region at the
western end of the Tibetan Plateau.
"Both countries, in 2009, stepped up efforts to assert their claims.
China tried to block a USD 2.9 billion loan to India from the Asian
Development Bank, claiming part of the loan would have been used for
water projects in Arunachal Pradesh. This represented the first time
China sought to influence this dispute through a multilateral
institution," the Pentagon said.
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