China mobilises thousands of troops, armoured vehicles near border with India

Soldiers and equipment transported from central province of Hubei to an unspecified location in northwest, according to state media

Footage of drill aired the same day top generals from the two sides held talks in a bid to defuse stand-off that began in early May

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Chinese soldiers head to the northwest plateau in images of the operation shown on state television. Photo: Weibo

Published: 9:00pm, 8 Jun 2020Updated: 11:04pm, 8 Jun 2020

China has mobilised thousands of paratroopers, armoured vehicles and equipment in a military drill, saying they could be deployed “within hours” to the border with India in the Himalayas, where tensions have again flared.

The soldiers and armoured vehicles were transported from the central province of Hubei to an unspecified location in China’s northwest plateau, thousands of kilometres away, in “just a few hours”, according to state media reports over the weekend.

Footage of troops boarding civilian planes and trains in the “manoeuvre operation” was aired on state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday, the same day top generals from China and India held talks in Moldo, on the Chinese side of the unmarked boundary known as the Line of Actual Control.

They were trying to defuse a stand-off that began in early May, with border troops engaging in fist fights and stone-throwing in the Galwan River valley between Ladakh, in Indian-administered Kashmir, and Chinese-administered Aksai Chin.

State media aired footage of troops boarding civilian planes to get from Hubei province to the unspecified location thousands of kilometres away. Photo: Weibo

Major Colonel Mao Lei, head of a PLA Air Force brigade training department that led the operation in the northwest, said it had made “significant breakthroughs” in terms of the scale of mobilised troops and how they were transported.