Beijing, Oct 28 : Chinese military has conducted its first-ever live military exercises involving air force, artillery and electronic warfare divisions near the foot of the snow-capped mountains on the Tibetan plateau, close to the Indian border.
The exercises aimed at testing the endurance of the soldiers at the altitude of over 4,700 meters was completed successfully with troops overcoming the effects of physical and mental health problems caused by coldness and oxygen deficits, said a report posted on China Tibet Online, website attached to the state-run People's Daily.
This is the first time that Tibet Military Command of the People's Liberation Army conducted its first air-ground live ammunition drill, it said, without mentioning the date. Troops of air force, armour, artillery and electronic warfare divisions participated in the exercise. The exercises will have a very significant role in exploring training patterns in mountainous and cold areas as well as improving combat capabilities, it said.
The exercises came amid reports of China rapidly expanding its infrastructure with extensive railway network connecting all most all parts of remote Tibet with mainland China, which could provide logistic ability to PLA to move its troops easily to the Indian border overcoming the adverse hilly terrain of Tibet.
China is also poised to open its fifth civil airport in Tibet next month at Xigaze, located close to the Indian border. Xigaze Peace Airport, located in Xigaze Prefecture, 48 km from Xigaze City, is 3,782 meters above sea level. The sprawling prefecture shares land links with Nepal, Indian and Bhutan borders.
China has also recently begun work to extend the world's highest rail link connecting Lhasa to Xigaze, the home of successive Panchen Lamas, the second most Tibetan spiritual Buddhist leader.
In the past five years, China has invested heavily in building transport infrastructure in Tibet, pouring money into construction of highways, railways and airports to stimulate Tibet's weak economy and tourism.
The heavy infrastructure development in the Himalayan region, made India to open an airbase besides improving the transport infrastructure in and around Arunachal Pardesh, which China claims as its part.
Source: Agencies
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