Reports have emerged that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have suffered medical casualties in the North Bank area of Pangong Tso due to high altitude sickness and owing to extreme weather conditions which they are not used to.
The Indian Army is keeping a close eye on the number of casualty evacuation that has been spotted in the area over the last week.
The weather in this region even during the summer is quite cold but during winter the temperature is considerably below the freezing point in the nights that is said to have caused many PLA casualties.
As per reports, China has deployed around 5,000 soldiers at an altitude of 15,000-16,000 feet, and it’s quite possible they are not fully acclimatized.
Jane’s Defence Weekly has quoted the PLA Daily that the Chinese soldiers will endure the long winter in thermally insulated habitats that have dormitories, washrooms, toilets, warehouses, microgrids and heating equipment.
These fixtures are capable of managing temperatures up to minus 55 degrees by maintaining an indoor balminess of 15 degrees Celsius. Also, the PLA soldiers have been provided with pressurized oxygen therapy and portable barracks deployed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
This region is known as the “roof of the world” and the weather are “arctic-like climate” and the thin air can trigger acute altitude sickness. When troops step out of the highly oxygenated artificial environment, they will suffer from breathing problem leading to various ailments.
In other news, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that Beijing does not recognize Union Territory (UT) status granted by New Delhi to Ladakh.
“First I want to make it clear that China does not recognise the Ladakh Union Territory illegally set up by the Indian side and Arunachal Pradesh. We stand against the development of infrastructure facilities aimed at military contention along the border areas,”, Lijian said.
This announcement came three days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that China has deployed 60,000 soldiers along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) against India.
Pompeo as per a report by IANS said, “The Indians are seeing 60,000 Chinese soldiers on their northern border”.
He further talked about the threat faced by the three major Indo-Pacific democracies — India, Australia, and Japan from the Chinese Communist Party.
Immeadetely the External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that China has no “locus standi” to comment on India’s internal matters and
Srivastava further added, “The union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are and would remain an integral part of India. China has no locus standi to comment on India’s internal matters. Arunachal Pradesh is also an integral and inalienable part of India. This fact has also been clearly conveyed to the Chinese side on several occasions, including at the highest level.”
China is very upset as India surges ahead in building roads and bridges and Zhao Lijian, the spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, told the media that “Beijing opposes India building infrastructure in the region.”
India has built 44 new bridges near the LAC in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, which were inaugurated recently. These bridges will give our troops the opportunity for quick deployment to forward areas and it also necessary from a national security perspective to safeguard Indian territory.
As China refuses to de-escalate at the LAC, many experts think it the weather in this cold and desolate region will be responsible for the death of PLA soldiers. Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a face-off in eastern Ladakh since May.