Beijing moves a subtle sign of a blatant military weakness

Beijing is not usually late in taking a step forward on its military prowess.

He boasts grandly how he can respond to all threats “at any time”; build artificial islands in the middle of the South China Sea and launch aircraft sorties into Taiwan airspace while constantly threatening to invade the island.

But an announcement in late January, about a reorganization of his army in the west of the vast nation, was notably more bureaucratic and drier in nature.

The Daily of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), as its name suggests, the spokesman for the armed forces, reported on the increased operations at the Western Theater Command (WTC), based in the central city of Chengdu.

The defense systems of the army and air force in the WTC were to be integrated into a joint US-style operation in a move that “would complement each other’s capabilities and better ensure China’s air security in joint operations in the region.”

A report in the state-owned Global Times said that military and air force weaponry and equipment would now be an “integrated cross-service” in the Western command.

“The integration of the two will more efficiently cover all kinds of targets, and the more facilities there are in the joint system, the stronger and more resilient the system will be,” Chinese military aviation expert Fu Qianshao told the newspaper.

The monotony of the words, however, may mask a startling admission of one of China’s military weaknesses.

The WTC is one of the five military regions covering China. Within its purview are the restless regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. Crucially, it also manages China’s complex and highly contested border with its nuclear-armed neighbor, India.

Despite China’s superiority, at least on paper, over India, that dispute has not gone the same way as Beijing.

In India, some Chinese observers have said the move is an acknowledgment that the PLA’s performance at the border has been “below average” and that the troops stationed there are “an unprofessional force.”

In the past year, clashes have been frequent between troops from the two nations, with fighting centered in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh to the west and Sikkim to the east.

In 2020, 20 Indian soldiers were killed when they encountered their Chinese counterparts in the Galwan Valley, on the ill-defined high-altitude border in the Himalayas.

Some Indian soldiers were reportedly beaten to death with crude studded weapons and fell into icy ravines.

China has never admitted how many of its troops were killed, but New Delhi insists there were casualties, possibly as many as 40.

Troops met face-to-face again last month in Sikkim. A Chinese patrol is reported to have attempted to enter territory claimed by India, but was forced to retreat after a “brawl”. Indian media said Beijing had been “beaten”.

This is not the kind of comment Beijing likes to hear.

CHINA ‘BELOW PAIR’

In India, the reinforcement of China’s western defenses is seen as a tacit recognition that Beijing’s attempts to extend its border into the mountainous region are not going as well as expected.

Writing in a major newspaper, former Hindu ambassador Yogesh Gupat said that the WTC was one of China’s many military “diseases.”

“China’s WTC performance in Ladakh last year was below average,” he wrote in an article late last month.

“It suffered heavy casualties in the Galwan Valley clash. The Indian army also captured the strategic mountain heights of Rezang La and other passes.”

Chinese troops were not acclimated to the harsh mountainous conditions and many had to be moved to lower altitudes, he said. Defense units in the region were also disorganized.

Of course, India is interested in downplaying China’s effectiveness given the many disputes between the two nations.

However, even though China’s armed forces are larger than India’s overall, New Delhi is believed to have the upper hand in the Himalayas with more aircraft based closer to the border than China.

Indian troops also have an advantage that China lacks: actual combat experience due to its long-standing enmity with neighboring Pakistan.

Gupat also said that Indian forces were more prepared to defend the border than China’s.

“China is a political force and not a professional one, and the staff are mostly recruits with low levels of education and little motivation.

“They lack a tough mindset and battlefield experience, and they face a serious ‘brain drain’ problem.”

Indian media have noted the appointment of General Zhang Xudong as the new WTC commander.

Previous commanders were thought to be distant from Chinese President Xi Jinping and ultimately fell from grace.

However, Zhao is close to the communist leader and has experience in sensitive border regions, previously commanding forces that patrolled the borders of Russia and North Korea.

“A changing of the guard at the WTC could indicate a stronger push to Xi Jinping’s agenda of controlling the occupied areas of eastern Ladakh, Tibet and eastern Xinjiang,” wrote India Today.

“The importance of the promotion could be measured by the fact that Jinping himself attended the event.”

Skirmishes between India and China are due in part to the difficulty of determining where one country ends and the other begins.

BORDER SQUABBLES ANCIENT CENTURIES

Much of the border runs through some of the most inhospitable regions on Earth. The use of rivers as natural borders has caused problems due to the numerous waterways and the habit of some to change their position completely.

When Britain tried to demarcate the border, back in the 19th century, it was so difficult that it was content to leave the line undefined in some areas due to its remoteness.

But Beijing and New Delhi are unhappy with multiple no-man’s-lands, particularly if one or the other starts building roads or placing troops on them.

“The antagonism of China and India along the Himalayas is a centuries-old story,” wrote scholars Berenice Guyot-Rechard and Kyle Gardener in The Diplomat magazine.

“Both countries want a fixed border line in the Himalayas; however, the physical geography, cultural landscape and political history of the world’s largest mountain range have made any direct demarcation impossible.”

This complexity means that both Beijing and New Delhi have claimed land that the other insists as their own.

China’s latest effort to bolster its Western military command may be a subtle acknowledgment that it has failed in the past. But it’s also a sign that you don’t intend that to be the case in the future.

Beijing will hope that more robust weapons, more professional soldiers, and coordination among its forces can give its military the advantage over the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. Since India is unwilling to give an inch, more bloodshed is almost the only sure outcome.