China, India complete troops disengagement in most border locations: Chinese FM

• Chinese and Indian border troops on the frontline have completed disengagement in most locations following close communications between the two sides via military and diplomatic channels, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
• “The situation is now continuing to head in the direction of easing and cooling down,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told the Global Times at a routine press conference on Tuesday.
• “A fifth round of commander-level talks is currently under preparations to resolve the remaining issues,” Wang said.
• Four rounds of commander-level talks and three meetings on border affair discussions and coordination have been held, Wang noted.
• Wang’s statement came after Indian media outlet Hindustan Times reported on Sat, citing sources that troops from India and China have completed disengagement at Galwan Valley, Patrolling Point 15, and Hot Springs/Gogra area, and the only area where disengagement remains to be implemented is the Finger area along the Pangong Tso Lake.
• Wang said that China hopes India can meet China halfway, implement the consensus both sides have reached and safeguard peace and stability in the border region together.

Though, such announcement made at various forum but ground realities don’t support the statements. Moreover, any clarification from MEA, India yet to come. 

However, Indian experts don’t believe “China prevaricates by claiming Indian and Chinese troops have “completed disengagement at most places.” Indian troops, to avert further clashes, have pulled back from India’s own territory, but PLA still occupies Indian territories at Gogra, Hot Springs, Pangong Lake and Depsang.”

In China’s troop movements in Ladakh’s depth areas, a hint about its real plan

• India’s last outpost at Daulet Beg Oldi DBO lies at a height of 16,000 feet just south of Karakoram pass and on banks of Chip-Chap river, north of the Galwan-Shyok confluence.
• With the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) deploying close to 50,000 troops in Aksai Chin, the Indian Army for the first time has deployed a squadron (12) T-90 missile firing tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs) and a full troop brigade (4,000 men) at Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) to prevent any Chinese aggression from the Shaksgam-Karakoram pass axis, according to top military commanders familiar with the matter.
• India’s last outpost at DBO lies at a height of 16,000 feet just south of Karakoram pass and on banks of Chip-Chap river, north of the Galwan-Shyok confluence.
• As some bridges on the Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road cannot handle the weight of a 46 ton T-90 tank, the Indian Army commanders sent the T-90 tanks after the June 15 Galwan flare-up by fording the rivers and rivulets using specialized equipment.
• The armored personnel carriers (APCs) or infantry combat vehicles , M 777 155mm howitzers, and 130 mm guns had already been sent to DBO after Chinese aggression at patrolling points 14, 15, 16 , 17 and the Pangong Tso finger features.
• While the Indian military has also decided to black-top the advance landing ground at DBO, the main reason for deploying tanks in the area is to prevent any sudden Chinese move from the north, they added.
• Already China has built some 36 km of road in the Shaksgam Valley (5163 km² were illegally ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963), and Indian military planners fear that PLA will link the G-219 (Lhasa-Kashgar) highway to Karakoram pass through the Shaksgam pass.
• Even though this will require tunneling under the permafrost of Shaksgam glacier, the Chinese have the technical ability to complete the job.
• The fear is that once the link is completed, the PLA will put pressure on DBO from the north as it needs a buffer to prevent the Indian Army from targeting the road.
• According to the military commanders, the main purpose of PLA aggression this summer was to clear all the friction points with the Indian Army along the 1147 km long line of actual control (LAC) in East Ladakh and impose the 1960 map claim.
• However, this attempt was forcefully repelled by the men of 16 Bihar who took on the 3 Mechanized Infantry of Xinjiang Military district on June 15 at Galwan.
• This plan dovetailed into a larger plan of linking the G219 highway to G314 (Kashgar-Islamabad Karakoram highway) via Karakoram-Shaksgam pass axis in order to save not only time but distance.
• A fruition of this plan would have made Indian army positions untenable not only at DBO but also at Siachen as the outpost is linked to Sansoma (crucial base on Nubra River before Siachen) via Saser la-Murgo axis.
• In many ways, Pervez Musharraf‘s plan to interdict Srinagar-Kargil highway and starve Indian positions at Siachen during the 1999 Kargil war between India and Pakistan has a parallel in China’s Xi Jinping’s attempt to interdict the DSDBO road to cut off DBO 21 years later.

Now, Japanese ruling party evaluates security risks linked to Chinese apps

• A Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party group is set to probe the risks associated with Chinese-developed apps amid concerns about data security among several leading democracies, its leader said Tue.
• Akira Amari, the group’s top official and the LDP’s tax panel chief, told reporters the time had come to consider what effect software was having on national security, adding that the U.S. was urging other countries to look at the issue from the same perspective.
• Rather than a “top down” decree on apps such as TikTok, Amari said he wanted users to be aware of the risks entailed.
• The group will then urge the government to introduce restrictions based on its analysis, the Yomiuri newspaper said.
• The move comes as the U.S. threatens a crackdown on apps from China, amid a broader standoff between the world’s two largest economies.
• Chinese FM spokesman Wang Wenbin sidestepped a question on the proposal at a regular news briefing Tue.
• “The mutually beneficial cooperation between China and other countries is win-win,” Wang said, adding that China didn’t “want to see any artificial damage to such patterns of cooperation.”

China to wait longer for S-400 as Russia suspends delivery of missiles amid espionage charges

• China claimed that Russia was forced to take this decision since it’s concerned that “the delivery of S-400 missiles at this time will affect the anti-pandemic actions of the People’s Liberation Army.
• The air defense missile system is believed to be the most advanced of its kind and is capable of destroying targets that is up to 400 km away, up to a height of up to 30 Km
• The suspension of the delivery comes after soon after Moscow accused Beijing of espionage, despite both countries enjoying reasonably good relations over the past few years

Under scanner for espionage charges in the United States, China has waded into troubled waters with Russia as well after similar charges became a backdrop for the delay in an already-agreed defense deal between the two countries.

• The suspension of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Beijing, with the resumption of deliveries yet to be ascertained.
• “This time, Russia announced the postponement of the delivery of missiles for the Chinese S-400 system.
• To a certain extent, we can say that it is for the sake of China. Getting a gun is not as easy as signing an invoice after receiving a weapon. They say that the work on delivering these weapons is quite complicated.
• While China has to send personnel for training, Russia also needs to send a lot of technical personnel to put the weapons into service,” UAWire reported, quoting Chinese newspaper Sohu.
• China, in its response, claimed that Russia was forced to take this decision since it’s concerned that “the delivery of S-400 missiles at this time will affect the anti-pandemic actions of the PLA and does not want to cause trouble to China”, news agency ANI reported.

“I’d like to tell @Sec Pompeo, (M. Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State Dept), that the South China Sea is not U.S.’ Hawaii,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, refuting Pompeo’s Twitter claim that “South China Sea is not China’s maritime empire.” He added U.S. military activities in the region has undermined peace.

Australia is likely to be invited to join the annual Malabar naval exercise later this year with India, Japan and the US. Besides denoting Australia’s return to an exercise from which it withdrew in 2008 to propitiate China, it will mark the first-ever Quad military drills.

Chinese lobbies stalling development projects in the North East in Centre’s crosshairs

• The issue was pointed out recently by Nagaland governor RN Ravi. “China had been influencing popular opinion on progressive policy of the (Indian) government in the region.
• The Red Dragon, playing smartly, has been operating through pressure groups here and delaying the developmental projects,” Ravi, also a former deputy national security adviser, had said while speaking on the ‘Role of China in North Eastern Insurgency’.
• Certain civil society groups have come under the scrutiny of the Union government for their alleged role in delaying development projects in the Northeast at the behest of Chinese enterprises, Economic Times reported.
• These projects, they said, were related to coal mining, hydropower, water supply, connectivity to enhance tourism and road development.
• Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim share land borders with China.
• Both states have several pending projects including road connectivity for Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur, which have been delayed due to opposition by the pro-China lobby, the officials said.

China plans to control Pak’s politics, economy via CPEC, report claims Imran Khan govt is helping Xi Jinping

• By 2050, Xi Jinping plans to have ultimate control of the majority of the emerging-market economies
• CPEC authority will also have constitutional power to initiate any investigation or even impose penalties against any public office holder, including the Prime Minister and President of Pakistan
• Xi Jinping is burdening those countries in debt traps while they are already suffering from intense balance-of-payments crises
• Imran Khan’s ‘Naya Pakistan’ is fulfilling Chinese President Xi Jinping’s dreams at cost of sovereignty, territorial integrity and freedom of its people.
• A news report claims that China plans to control Pakistan’s politics, economy via CPEC.
• Over the years China has made several unsuccessful attempts to take ultimate control of the political and economic affairs of Pakistan but it seems that it has succeeded at last.
• The proposal was rejected by the Nawaz Sharif govt but accepted by Imran Khan
• Xi will slowly poison Pakistan & poor economies
• Xi Jinping plans to control emerging-market economies by 2050

According to an article by Ali Salman Andani published in the Asia Times, PM Imran Khan, a puppet of the military establishment, was able to manipulate the law to fulfil Xi’s desires to control the Planning Ministry of Pakistan.

• Chinese and Indian border troops on the frontline have completed disengagement in most locations, and the situation is easing and cooling down: Chinese FM
• Chinese President Xi Jinping is delivering a speech in Beijing at the opening ceremony of the 5th annual meeting of the board of governors of the #AIIB via video link on Tuesday.
• Chines FM says China has decided to suspend HKSAR’s extradition treaties and agreements on mutual assistance in criminal matters with Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin announced on Tuesday