Chinese infantry. (Photo : PLA)
The People's Liberation Army (PLA), China's armed forces, claims its intensified military build-up along China's disputed border with India has always been "non-aggressive and restrained".
It also blamed Indian media for hyping the extent of tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and slammed it for its "oversensitive" coverage of the LAC.
"China is undoubtedly India's largest opponent and therefore every move of the Chinese military will touch the nerve of the Indian media," said a story presenting the PLA's point of view published in China Military, the only official English-language news website of the PLA.
"However, the Indian military has more movement than China along the Sino-Indian border."
The PLA also claims India has deployed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) along the LAC.
In contrast to India's warlike preparations along the border, China's deployment and maneuvers along the border are meant to improve the high altitude combat capability of the men of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force or PLAGF (the Chinese land army) and form deterrent ability.
"In comparison, Chinese military's movement along the border has always been restrained. India is not yet the biggest threat for China and though confrontation events along the border would occur from time to time, the overall situation is rather stable."
The story said China won't its Shenyang J-20 stealth fighter to the border. The J-20, however, is still being tested and is not an operational fighter capable of combat.
China has deployed 300,000 men of the PLAGF along its border with India at Arunachal Pradesh. It's also built airfields at Hoping, Pangta and Kong Ka to support six existing airfields in the Tibetan Autonomous Region that can handle fighter jets such as the Sukhoi-27UBK and Sukhoi-30MKK fighters and heavy transport aircraft.
Chinese ballistic missiles such as the DF-31 and DF-31A aimed at India have been deployed to the city of Delingha, north of Tibet. Delingha is the missile headquarters for Qinghai, and houses DF-4s with four associated launch sites.
Arrayed against these forces are 120,000 Indian Army soldiers that will soon receive 90,000 reinforcements. Supporting these men are two IAF Su-30MKI squadrons from Tezpur in Assam. Also counted in India's favor is the forthcoming deployment of a BrahMos supersonic cruise missile regiment to the state.
