Himalayas: China strengthens its defense with the PCL191, a new rocket launcher
It is in the Himalayas that the increased presence of the Chinese army is beginning to worry India.
AFP/Tauseef Mustafa
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
According to Chinese state television, China has just tested a new high-altitude rocket launcher system.
The PCL191 could be deployed in the Himalayas as the 16th round of military talks on the Sino-Indian border has just been held.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
The device mounted on a truck and hit its target several kilometers away in a desert in western China, China Central Television reported on Sunday (July 17th).
The system is not unknown to the battalion.
It was first seen unsheathed on Chinese National Day on October 1, 2019.
The novelty today is that in addition to rockets with a range of 350 kilometers, the system could now carry so-called “ Fire Dragon
” ballistic missiles
capable of striking at 500 kilometers.
Negotiations on the roof of the world
According to a military expert interviewed by the
South China Morning Post,
"
if the range of the rocket launching system has indeed been extended to 500 km, it means that it can hit any Indian military base, from the territory under Chinese control
.
This new test made public came as the Chinese and Indian armies were negotiating at a border post on the Indian side of the Line of Effective Control (LAC), which marks the demarcation between the two countries.
This is also where hostilities resumed two years ago, when China strengthened its presence on the roof of the world.
In the spring of 2020, as the whole world fought against the new pandemic, China reinforced its external borders: Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the Himalayas.
Ballistic missiles like
the Donfeng 17
have also been lined up facing the Taiwanese coast.
Tense diplomacy
Since then,
the show of force has continued
with tense diplomacy between the two Asian giants.
Narendra Modi endorsed the Dalai Lama's trip to Ladakh.
Xi Jinping hailed the People's Army soldiers involved in clashes with Indian forces during his recent trip to Xinjiang.
Both sides, however, are advocating appeasement and breaking the impasse, but concretely, gestures are long overdue.
In February 2021, the Chinese and Indian military reached
a first agreement
.
After a first disengagement in August 2021, the People's Liberation Army again blocked Indian army access to certain patrol points.
The negotiations have not, for the moment, made it possible to make progress on this subject.
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