Official Chinese media says the nation can be proud of the fact that it now “effectively controls every inch” of the 22,000 km of land borders. This is not a claim that New Delhi can make.

Despite some inspired bureaucratic initiatives from New Delhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s strong support for them, it has not been easy to force the pace of modernising India’s border infrastructure and improving its frontier management.

Unless the next government takes up border upgradation on a war footing, the current weaknesses of India’s control of its frontiers could trigger a major national security crisis in the not too distant future.

Modern warfare

Conducting a military exercise involving 50,000 troops might be no big deal for China or India, which boast of such large armed forces. But the Peoples Liberation Army’s plans for ‘Kuayue-09’ underline China’s strong commitment to mastering the techniques of modern warfare.

The exercises to be conducted later this year are meant to assess and improve the PLA’s capabilities in six areas. These are, “command and decision-making, joint operations of land and air forces, operations in complex informational conditions, paratrooper assault operations, simulated battles, and comprehensive exercises by specialist units”, according to the Xinhua news agency.

For the first time, it will involve soldiers from four different army commands as well as the PLA Air Force. The 50,000 men will be moved around for a total distance of 50,000 km in this exercise. The longest single movement would be 2400 km.

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