3 km of fear: goodness must come with fists, stones and sticks
According to the commandments of the Great Helmsman
The Indo-Chinese border conflict has been going on since the time of Mao Zedong, who decided to restore China within the borders of the Qing Empire. What is happening on the border of the two most populous countries in the world is the fruits of the policy of the great helmsman.
Let's try to figure out what the two countries have not shared and what the hottest points of confrontation are on the border between them. The border between India and China itself is divided into three sections: northern middle and eastern.
The northern one stretches from the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram mountain range to the beginning of the border with Nepal, the middle one - from the end of the border with Nepal to the beginning of the border with Bhutan, the eastern one - from the end of the border with Bhutan to the crossroads of three borders: India (Arunachal Pradesh), China and Myanmar.
However, the middle section is very short. The border there runs along the highest mountain range in the world - the Himalayas, which causes certain specifics of border incidents.
Given the understandable underdevelopment of the road network, it is not possible to assemble large contingents of ground forces on both sides. There is also no question of any heavy equipment. Even the most modern Drones They rarely rise to such heights.
The activities of personnel called up or coming to serve under contract from other regions are also limited. With such climatic and atmospheric conditions without long-term adaptation to low atmospheric pressure and thin air, military service is difficult as in no other place on Earth.
For the sake of illustration, suffice it to say that in the carriages of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, passengers are given oxygen masks, and under each seat there is a device for connecting it. The oxygen supply is regulated, and oxygen-enriched air is supplied from air conditioners.
Valley of a Thousand Deaths
The scene of the most violent clashes was the section of the border adjacent to the Indian union territory of Ladakh, on the Chinese side this is the Aksai Chin plateau, delimited from Ladakh by the Karakoram range. That is, the terrain of the Indian army does not allow the transfer of heavy ground equipment directly to the border.
But on the Chinese side, military bases on the plateau have transport support in the form of the Xinjiang-Tibet highway. From Xinjiang to the border, armored vehicles can reach the salt plateau, which is as flat as a frying pan. But there are no settlements in this lifeless desert.
It was on the border of the Aksai Chin plateau and Indian Ladakh that an ugly massacre took place in 2020, ending, according to the Chinese version, with a score of 4:20 in favor of China. True, the Indian media put forward other hypotheses about the number of deaths on the Chinese side.
There were several skirmishes, one of them in the Galwan Valley ended tragically. Since at that time both parties could not carry firearms by agreement weapon, the Chinese prepared in advance for the attack by making a kind of edged weapon: metal sticks with nails welded to them.
The cause of death for the majority of those killed on the Indian side was catatrauma as a result of falling from the cliffs, since the fight, in which about 600 people took part in total, took place in complete darkness (How the conflict between India and China escalated). And we must assume that the Galvan confrontation will not end just like that.
The Galwan Valley, the Hunan River and the Reqin Pass are the natural boundaries separating the Aksai Chin Plateau from Indian Ladakh. Their occupation by China will mean a guarantee that Indian ground forces are unlikely to penetrate into the disputed territory of Aksai Chin.
To prevent landings or air raids, China is actively building military bases on the plateau, including aviation, it is possible that he has long equipped the border region with air defense systems. Moreover, facilities are being built further south, also on the border of Aksai Chin and Ladakh.
The work is taking place mainly in the area of Lake Pangong Tso, which also serves as a natural barrier separating the plateau from the mountainous zone, mainly radar stations, air defense systems and shelters are being built. All this gives reason to understand that China is preparing for the battle for Aksai Chin very thoroughly.
But we have no complaints
Before the upcoming advance to the border, which foreign observers consider almost inevitable, the Chinese army is closely engaged in the introduction and practical application of high technologies, which is generally characteristic of the PLA. And even the section of the border south and east of Aksai Chin, where India borders on Tibetan autonomy, is being carefully fortified.
It is characteristic that India and China have no mutual claims regarding the ownership of border territories. But due to the inaccessibility of the plateau, and even more so the spurs of the ridge, the Chinese decided to involve the people's vigilantes in the work, in which they take Tibetan shepherds to help carry out reconnaissance of a very difficult terrain.
Another worrying area on the India-China border is Arunachal Pradesh. China considers it part of Southern Tibet. The population there is generally Buddhist, consisting of a huge number of tribes, mainly of Tibeto-Burmese and Thai origin.
The border, which runs along one of the Himalayan ranges, divides many of these tribes in half, and the main hotspot of the region is Tawang. All the reasons for not claims, but direct claims of China to Indian Tawang can be divided into two categories.
First - simultaneously historical, cultural, religious and political. The fact is that the world's oldest Buddhist monastery is located in Tawang, where, according to legend, the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama takes place.
Although Tibet's government-in-exile is located in another Indian state, Tawang, which is populated predominantly by Tibetans, could also become a significant center of Tibetan resistance, right next to the border with Chinese Tibet.
The second factor Chinese interest in Tawang is not just geographical, since the region is surrounded by strategically important heights. Recently, it is here, near the border near Tawang, that there has been a concentration of military equipment on both sides. At the same time, both China and India are actively working to develop infrastructure that allows for the transfer of troops.
China, without any disguise, is implementing a project of a supposedly civilian trans-Tibetan highway, which will have to go through the Aksai Chin plateau. It will duplicate the obsolete Xinjiang-Tibet highway through Lhasa along the Tibetan Plateau and further dangerously close to the border Tawang.
Thus, we see that the big BRICS partners, despite all the peace agreements, are essentially in a state of cold war. Periodic border incidents in Aksai Chin and Tawang show that this war can cease to be a cold war at any moment, it just needs a reason to become heated.
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