China deploys 70,000 troops and drones in front of Ladakh
S. Jaishankar, India’s External Affairs Minister, claims that the country has made its largest-ever LAC deployment to counter China’s buildup.
According to security sources, China has deployed over 70,000 troops along the border in eastern Ladakh and continues to build infrastructure inside India-claimed lines on the strategic Depsang Plains as well as other friction points where both sides have partially disengaged.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday said India had undertaken its largest LAC deployment to counter Chinese forces in Ladakh, while security officials said China had deployed drones to monitor Indian troop movements.
“During the partial disengagements, the Chinese have deployed a large number of surveillance drones over the buffer zones created within India-claimed lines to keep an eye on the movements of Indian troops,” a security official attached to the Union home ministry said.
“A recent ground assessment indicates that China has also deployed over 70,000 soldiers along the LAC in eastern Ladakh and is continuing with their build-up,” he added. They have been constructing additional roads, helipads, and military camps inside India-claimed lines on the Depsang Plains, where they have so far refused to disengage.”
The Chinese have also been “mobilising more men and machinery into the Galwan Valley and other standoff points, where both armies have carried out partial disengagement,” he said.
According to a defence ministry official, the Indian army deployed troops in response to the Chinese army’s threat. “The biggest concern is that they (the Chinese) are continuing with their massive infrastructure development inside India-claimed lines at Depsang Plains,” he says.
Military veterans and security experts have been warning for months that China may be planning to keep the 1,000 square kilometres of India-claimed territory it has occupied since May 2020 by declaring a new status quo on the undemarcated LAC.
As part of the disengagement agreements, Indian and Chinese troops retreated by equal distances from flashpoints in the Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake, Hot Springs, and Gogra, leaving demilitarised “buffer zones” in between. This means that the Chinese have remained within the India-claimed lines they have crossed, while India has relinquished control over more territory it claims as its own.
“The Chinese are already in control of the heights at the Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake and are in a position of huge military and tactical advantage. “They’ve refused to leave the Depsang Plains,” a former lieutenant general told The Press.
“The creation of the buffer zones reflects how the Chinese have forced India to agree to their reinterpretation of the LAC,” the former lieutenant general said. This has serious consequences.”
Military veterans have chastised the Narendra Modi government for “ceding” more territory to China by agreeing to buffer zones rather than insisting on a return to the pre-transgression status quo.
In the eastern sector, the Chinese are also constructing large-scale infrastructure, including villages, close to the border. On December 9, Indian troops foiled a Chinese attempt to cross the border in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector, injuring 15 to 20 Indian soldiers.