China deployment in Tibet puts India on alert

Aug. 24: China’s recent deployment of about 50,000 troops in Tibet as part of a military exercise comes as yet another warning that India has to undertake rapid expansion of its infrastructure and modernisation of air fields in the border areas as well as military modernisation in the years to come to safeguard its security interests, Indian defence sources have indicated. Sources said the Indian Army did not amass more troops on the Indian side of the border in response to the increased Chinese military presence in Tibet.
China, which annexed Tibet six decades ago, and which covets large parts of Arunachal Pradesh has rapidly expanded its road infrastructure right up to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Sino-Indian border.
Indian defence sources said that China is aided by the geographical factor, in that large parts of its border with India are on the plains while the Indian side has a much more difficult topography to negotiate on its side of the border. China still continues periodic transgressions into Indian territory although there have been no skirmishes in the recent past on the LAC.
It may be recalled that China was a major topic of discussion at the recent meeting of the National Security Council headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. As reported earlier, Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor had then informed the Prime Minister that India would have to undertake rapid military modernisation including acquisition of modern air defence and artillery guns, especially in view of the fact that there have been no acquisitions of these armaments in the past several years.
While China is a worrying factor for India, Pakistan also is a major worry especially in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks. India is also worried that Pakistan has misused and will continue to misuse the billions of dollars of American military aid to acquire armaments to be used against India instead of against the Pakistani Taliban.