China has moved new advanced long-range CSS-5 missiles near the border with India and has contingency plans ready to shift airborne forces at short notice to the region, the Pentagon said on Monday.
China has moved new advanced long-range CSS-5 missiles near the border with India and has contingency plans ready to shift airborne forces at short notice to the region, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“To improve regional deterrence, the PLA has replaced older liquid-fuelled, nuclear-capable CSS-3 intermediate-range ballistic missiles with more advanced and survivable solid-fuelled CSS-5 MRBMs and may be developing contingency plans to move airborne troops into the region,” said the report, which is an annual congressionally mandated exercise on China’s military capabilities, intention, and strategy.
On China’s cyberwarfare capabilities, the report said: “In March 2009, Canadian researchers uncovered an electronic spy network, apparently based in China, which had reportedly infiltrated Indian and other nations’ government offices. More than 1,300 computers in 103 countries were identified.”
Listing areas in which China’s military is on the march, the report said China is developing and fielding large numbers of advanced medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles and deploying a new class of nuclear-powered submarines equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles.
China’s clandestine strategic build-up has Indian military and strategic experts worried.
Strategic affairs analyst K Subrahmanium told DNA: “It is not just a matter of concern for India, but for the entire international community. India cannot get into an arms race with China. It has to look up to strategic partners like Russia or the US. The Indian military inventory is inadequate. The US is concerned because a strong China will dominate in the neighbourhood, where the US has major interests.”
Defence expert and analyst Uday Bhaskar said: “The military asymmetry between India and China is growing in favour of China.
This report is an American report, which is an American estimate of its principal adversary. Since India already has had border disputes with China, therefore India needs to be very concerned about the military build-up; such estimates and reports should be done by India as well and tabled in Parliament for systematic review. After all, Sino-Indian relations are shaped by their military asymmetry.”
But retired Vice-Admiral AK Singh, a submariner, said: “There is nothing new in this report and it has been going on for the past five years.”
The Pentagon report has warned the US about Chinese capability to strike from a distance, calling it a move towards increasing a conflict scenario with other nations.
Touted as having as many as eight nuclear submarines deep inside waters in faraway oceans, the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) is going in for more nuclear-capable submarines and diesel-electric boats, according to the report, for far and wide reach across the globe. The PLA-N is also building its own aircraft carrier, Varyag, which, according to India, will become afloat by 2015.
The 83-page Pentagon report also shows concern over China’s 2009 military spending of $150 billion. China is said to have been declaring its military spending to the UN since 2007.
With agency inputs
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