The Chinese army conducted a live-fire drill in Tibet in recent days China’s state-run Global Times reported on Tuesday. News of the drill came hours after the Chinese and Indian armies engaged in deadly hand-to-hand combat along their disputed border in the western Himalayas.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Tibet Military Command said that the drill featured “multiple types of combat forces including long-range artillery systems, ground-to-air missile systems, special operative forces, army aviation troops, electronic countermeasure forces, and engineering and anti-chemical warfare troops in a joint operation group.”
According to the PLA’s report, drills “simulated a strike operation on hostile hubs from multiple dimensions and trained the high-elevation troops’ joint operation capabilities.”
“Type 15 lightweight tanks and HJ-10 anti-tank missiles as well as PLZ-07A 122mm self-propelled howitzers and PHL-11 122mm self-propelled rocket launchers” were deployed during the drill, the first time many of the advanced weapons were used in high altitude, the South China Morning Post reported.
“The drills laid a solid foundation for the troops to conduct all kinds of missions,” Zhang Jialin, a brigade commander who participated in the drills, said in the PLA report.
The report failed to reveal the specific date of the drill, saying merely that it was held “recently” on a plateau in the Nyenchen Tonglha Mountains at an elevation of 4,700 meters. This site is located about 600 miles southeast of Monday’s border clash in India’s northeastern Ladakh state.
The demonstration of operational capability by the Chinese military was announced just hours after a vicious fight broke out between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on Monday night, which killed at least 23 Indian soldiers and one Indian commanding officer. The number of Chinese dead remains unconfirmed, but Indian media reports that roughly 40 PLA troops also died following the clash.
Monday’s bloody episode resulted in the Indian Army’s worst losses since 1999 when India fought the Kargil War with Pakistan. It is also described as the most intense fighting between India and China documented since 1967, when deadly skirmishes between the two sides near the Nathu La and Cho La mountain passes killed 88 Indian troops and about 340 PLA soldiers.
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