Chinese Station Spying on Indian Defense Planes in Ladakh

In the latest development along the tense, disputed Line of Actual Control between the Ladakh region in India and the People’s Republic of China, China has built a station Indian officials believe will be used to monitor flights in and out of an Indian airstrip high up in the Himalayas.
Chinese Station Spying on Indian Defense Planes in Ladakh
An Indian army soldier guards the Srinagar-Leh highway in the 11,581 feet-high Zojila Pass, which connects Kashmir with the Ladakh region, on April 6, 2013. (Rouf Bhat/AFP/Getty Images)
11/7/2013
Updated:
11/7/2013

In the latest development along the tense, disputed Line of Actual Control between the Ladakh region in India and the People’s Republic of China, China has built a station Indian officials believe will be used to monitor flights in and out of an Indian airstrip high up in the Himalayas.

According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), Indian technical experts have been closely monitoring the structure, which until recently didn’t exist on the Chinese side of the border. Experts believe it could be a radar station, although no signal has been emitted or received till date.

During recent border meetings between China and India, the Chinese delegation claimed the structure was a weather station, according to media reports. The Indian side speculated as to why a weather station would be needed in an area that has no civilian population.

In August this year, the Indian Air Force landed a C-130J Super Hercules transport plane in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector, which has a military base and is near the northernmost tip of Ladakh, hard by the PRC border.

Successfully landing the transport plane on the highest airstrip in the world at 16,641 feet enables the Indian forces to bring in troops and supplies by air to this remote area with harsh conditions much of the year. The PTI report said that the Chinese side expedited its work on the station after this historic, high-altitude landing.

The airfield, also used in the 1965 war with Pakistan, was reactivated by the Indian Air Force after 43 years in 2008, with the landing of an Antonov-32 aircraft.

On Oct. 23, during Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, the two Asian giants have signed the much awaited Border Defense Cooperation Agreement. Article VI of the agreement says that the two sides would not follow or tail patrols of the other side in areas where there is no common understanding of the line of actual control in the India-China border areas.

On October 24, Singh said in his speech at the Central Party School in Beijing that maintaining peace and tranquility in the India-China border areas is the cornerstone of their bilateral relations. “It is essential for mutual confidence and for the expansion of our relations. We should do nothing to disturb that,” he said.

In April this year, about 50 Chinese soldiers crossed 19 kilometers (approximately 12 miles) across the Line of Actual Control into Indian territory, setting up a remote camp near the Indian position at Daulat Beg Oldi. On May 6, to end a 21 day-long stand-off, both sides agreed to pull their forces back to positions held before the confrontation.