Although there has been an uptick in political and economic relations between India and China, the two countries continue to be locked in tensions along their long border, says the Pentagon in its annual report to the US Congress on China.
“Despite increases in China-India political and economic relations, tensions remain along their shared 4,057 km border, most notably over Arunachal Pradesh (which China asserts is part of Tibet and therefore of China), and over the Askai Chin region at the western end of the Tibetan Plateau,” says the report, titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China”.
While noting that the two countries signed the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement in October 2013 to supplement existing procedures to manage the interaction of forces along the line of Actual Control, the report says New Delhi and Beijing continue to accuse each other of frequent incursions and military build-ups along the disputed territories.
Noting that the most recent incident occurred in September 2014 along the lAC in Eastern ladakh, the report goes on to comment: “The military stand-off lasted twelve days and coincided with President Xi Jinping’s visit to India, the first of a Chinese President in nearly a decade, casting a shadow over the visit.”
Prepared in coordination with agencies and departments across the US Government, the report is taken to be the most authoritative American assessment on military and security developments involving China.
China, according to the report, continues to pursue “a long-term, comprehensive military modernisation programme designed to improve its armed forces’ capacity to fight short-duration, high-intensity regional conflicts”.
It goes on to say that this rapid modernisation has the potential to reduce core US military technological advantages. It speaks of Beijing’s “extraordinarily rapid” development of its conventionally armed missile capabilities.
The report points to China “investing in capabilities designed to defeat adversary power projection and counter third-party — including US —intervention during a crisis or conflict”.