Chi sends military vehicles, supplies to Tibet

Beijing, July 19: Chi has moved tens of thousands of tonnes of military vehicles and equipment into Tibet amid a continuing stand-off between Chinese and Indian troops in Doklam in the Sikkim sector of the border.
The hardware was moved simultaneously by road and rail from across the entire region in late June, a report in the PLA Daily run by the Chinese Army said.
The report comes as the Chinese Army held a live-fire drill last week in Tibet, which borders India.
According to the Chinese media report, the drill was conducted not far from Doklam, which is at the tri-junction of India, Chi and Bhutan. The PLA report did not say if the military supply was linked to the drill in Tibet.
“The vast haul was transported to a region south of the Kunlun Mountains in northern Tibet by the Western Theatre Command, which oversees the restive regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and handles border issues with India,” the South Chi Morning Post quoted the PLA Daily as saying.
“Diplomatic talks must be backed by military preparation,” Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military commentator, was quoted as saying by the Post.
Wang Dehua, an expert on South Asia studies at the Shanghai Institutes for Intertiol Studies, said the scale of the troop and equipment movement showed how much easier it now was for Chi to defend its western borders. “Military operations are all about logistics,” he said. “Now there is much better logistics support to the Tibet region.”
Now, the military can “easily transport troops and supplies to the frontline, thanks to the much-improved infrastructure including the Qinghai-Tibet railway and other new roads connecting the plateau to the rest part of Chi”, Wang said.  (IANS)