CHINA’S INTERFERENCE ALONG THE LoC

 

 

 

RECENTLY, a news about China assisting Pakistan in enhancing the defence capabilities along the Line of Control (LoC) surfaced. In the din of the long-drawn elections, the issue got subsumed to a large extent. In fact, China has been bolstering the defence infrastructure of the Pak Army for the last three years in a methodical and calculated manner. This issue needs serious consideration from the overall security perspective. LoC is 740 km long de facto boundary between Indian part of J&K and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). The Pak controlled section is divided into two parts: Azad Kashmir which is hilly and mountainous and Gilgit-Baltistan which is high mountains and high-altitude terrain going up to 15,000 feet. Unlike the International Boundary (IB) between two nations which is recognised officially by the countries and the world community, LoC is a disputed border which acts a temporary working arrangement till accepted/converted into the IB. Incidentally, India and China share a similarly contested 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC). In the military parlance, Pakistan is called our Western adversary and China is named Northern adversary. The LoC is guided by a Ceasefire Agreement between India and Pakistan which was last renewed in February 2021.

 

There have been occasional violations but largely both the countries, particularly India has honoured its commitment towards the agreement. It may be noted that the maximum violations by Pak sponsored terrorists took place South of Pir Panjaal Mountain ranges in Rajouri -Poonch sector in the last three years. In the last three years, China has actively enhanced the defence capabilities in the POK. China has huge infrastructure development capabilities and it has put it to great effect along the LoC to fortify the fighting bunkers with steelhead protection so as to make the artillery shells, rockets and missiles ineffective against them. China has also assisted in installing highly encrypted communication towers and laying underground fibre optic cables to boost wartime command & control structure for the Pak Army. In addition, Unarmed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) of varying configuration have also been supplied. Some of such UAVs have also dropped drugs and war like stores into Punjab and Jammu region in the recent past. Given the dismal state of Pak economy, such expensive military assistance provided by China which by no means may be restricted to these alone should be a cause of concern for India. The timing and period of roughly last three years has to be put in the perspective.

 

Post Galwan crisis of June 2020 vintage, India realised that it has to finally decide which country is the major adversary. From 2021, India carried out a rebalancing of its forces between the western and northern adversary with a focus towards China. It is around this time that China decided to augment the defence capabilities of Pakistan along the LoC. Under the garb of ceasefire agreement, Pakistan effectively exploited the relative peace towards their side of LoC to construct and improve the defence network in the mountainous terrain, so very crucial in a conventional war. It is more or less agreed by the military analysts that India will face a two-front war in case of a full-scale conventional war with either Pakistan or China. A direct one to one war with India does not suit China, given the massive infrastructure development undertaken by India in the last one decade. It is therefore strategically critical for China to tie down Indian forces and defence capability with its western adversary Pakistan. A much-improved defence infrastructure along the LoC backed by strong physical presence of troops makes LoC highly impregnable. Any offensive by India across the LoC is going to require huge manpower resources and considerable employment of expensive military hardware.

 

So effectively, China is planning to fix Indian Armed Forces in the west to exploit its superior military in the north. Another critical interest of China is served in the security of POK as the ambitious 65-billion-dollar China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) gets a boost. Pakistan PM is currently visiting China and he has promised to lend full cooperation to this project undertaken by China, passing through a major portion of POK, right till Gwadar. So, POK becomes strategically important to China too. It is not that India has not improved its defence infrastructure along the LoC. We have gone about enhancing the capabilities but the difference has been uncertain security situation. Moreover, unlike Pakistan, Indian system still remains relatively slow in creating infrastructure at fast pace. Just to give an example, I recall that during Operation Parakram, Pakistan created a new Ditch Cum Bund opposite Amritsar sector in record time of three months in early 2001. This was done by them to prevent capture of Lahore. Alas, such things rarely happen on the Indian side. India has not protested the interference by China along the Pak side of LoC in strong terms.

 

Contrast this with China even protesting the congratulatory message between Prime Minister Modi and Taiwan President Lai Ching-te. We possibly need to be hyper sensitive when it comes to interference by China or any other nation in the matters of national security. Militarily, India has to rapidly improve the defence infrastructure both along the LoC and LAC. The modernisation of defence forces has to continue with focus on cutting edge technology. The Human Resource issues have to be urgently addressed. Major reforms are needed but these can not be at the cost of the traditional strengths of the Indian Armed Forces, particularly Indian Army which ultimately fashions victory with boots on ground. Among other challenges of nation building, strengthening the security of the country will be paramount for Prime Minister Modi in the NDA Government. The issue of national security is above the party lines and all the stake holders as wise persons have to remain united in thought, process and action to propel India towards the goal of a developed nation.