Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
Recently, Chinese Military has raised new militia units comprising local Tibetan youth for high-altitude warfare.
Important points:
- The new units named Mimang Cheton are presently undergoing training, and are to be deployed mostly in upper Himalayan ranges, both in the eastern and western sectors of the India-China border.
- They are being trained for a variety of tasks, including using high-tech equipment such as drones on the one hand, as well as mules and horses to reach regions in the Himalayan range that can’t be accessed by modern means.
- They have been raised near Eastern Ladakh, the site of the recent border tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), as well as near its borders with Sikkim and Bhutan.
- The LAC is the demarcation that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory.
- Trained units have already been deployed along various locations in the Chumbi valley and at Rutog in Tibet, near the Pangong Tso (lake) in eastern Ladakh.
- The deployment of the new Mimang Cheton units mirrors India’s elite and decades-old Special Frontier Force (SFF).
- Just like the SFF which relies on the knowledge of Tibetans, the Mimang Cheton also relies on the local knowledge of Tibetans as well as locals’ resistance to High Altitude Sickness, a problem in alpine warfare.
Objectives:
- The new units will be used for high-altitude warfare as well for surveillance.
- A new feature of the units is that upon completion of training, they are being blessed by Buddhist monks in Tibet, which is being interpreted as a sign of greater socio-cultural outreach from the PLA to ethnic Tibetans.
- This is possibly a new strategy of the PLA to get some mileage in the Tibet region.
Concerns for India:
- Such development in view of the strategic location of Chumbi Valley creates a concern for India.
- Chumbi Valley is a 100-km protrusion of Chinese territory located between Bhutan in the east and Sikkim in the west.
- The valley’s location has long resulted in concerns that it could be used to launch operations to snap strategic communications links in the Siliguri Corridor.
- Siliguri Corridor is a narrow stretch of land located around the city of Siliguri in West Bengal. It connects northeastern states with the rest of the country, and is also known as chicken’s neck.
China’s Strengthening Position:
These developments have come against the backdrop of the border standoff that began in May 2020 and a rapid build-up of infrastructure on the Chinese side along the LAC, including airports, helipads, missile facilities and air sites.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT
