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NEW DELHI: China now actively covets Arunachal Pradesh, much like it does Taiwan and other areas in the South and East China Seas, as part of its strategy to achieve “great rejuvenation” as a nation, while it continues to arm Pakistan with latest military hardware like multirole J-10C fighters, the latest US department of defence report says.”China’s leadership has extended the term ‘core interest’ to cover Taiwan and China’s sovereignty claims amid territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the Senkaku Islands, and the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh,” the annual Pentagon report on China’s military capabilities said Tuesday.TOI has repeatedly reported that China progressively upped the ante in the eastern sector (Sikkim, Arunachal) of the 3,488-km LAC after its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) made multiple incursions into eastern Ladakh in the western sector in April-May 2020.Though troop disengagement between India and China from the two remaining immediate face-off sites at Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh took place in Oct last year, there is still no actual de-escalation on the ground with the rival armies remaining forward deployed for the sixth successive winter all along LAC. Indian officials say Arunachal, especially Tawang sector that China claims as “South Tibet”, is “heavily guarded” with “a very high density” of troops and weapon systems to counter any threat. Taking note of the ongoing thaw in overall India-China ties, the Pentagon report says China “probably seeks to capitalise on decreased tensions” along LAC to stabilise bilateral relations and prevent the deepening of US-India ties, after the Modi-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Oct last year. “However, India probably remains sceptical of China’s actions and motives. Continued mutual distrust and other irritants alm-ost certainly limit the bilateral relationship,” it added. The report largely dwells upon China’s rapid and formidable development of its military capabilities across all domains, from land, air and sea to space, cyberspace and electronic warfare, which has “made the US homeland increasingly vulnerable”. The PLA, for instance, has continued its “massive nuclear expansion” and is fully on track to have over 1,000 warheads by 2030 from the stockpile of around 600 at present. It also plans to have six more aircraft carriers by 2035 to add to its three existing ones. China has also steadily armed Pakistan to bog India down in South Asia. As of May this year, it had delivered 36 J-10C fighters to Pakistan, apart from the earlier four 054A/P multi-role frigates and other platforms. Pakistan had effectively used the Chinese J-10s armed with PL-15 air-to-air missiles in a fully networked sensor-shooter loop, against IAF during in May, as was reported by TOI earlier. Another concern for India is that the PLA now has an “operational presence” at Ream naval base in Cambodia, according the Pentagon, which is the second “official” Chinese overseas military base in the wider Indian Ocean Region after Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.
