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Aksai Chin models threat for India
Published on Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 22:56, Updated on Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 23:16 in 
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New Delhi: It is well known that Aksai Chin, the icy cold desert in Ladakh, was occupied by China nearly 60 years ago.
Not so well known is the replica of Aksai Chin that China has created purely for military training purposes.
Experts warn that Aksai Chin remains strategically crucial to China even today.
China's occupation of Aksai Chin in Ladakh is more than 40 years old, which is why Google Earth's satellite images of an Aksai Chin scale model in another part of China raises many questions.
Experts say the model duplicates Aksai Chin's steep mountains and deep valleys and even military barracks can also be seen.
"In the context of the confidence building measures, it indicates a certain postponement of war, it doesn't mean military preparations cannot take place," defence analysts Srikanth Kondapalli says.
The Aksai Chin model is located more than 2000 km east in Ningxia province and experts say it probably forms part of the Lanzhou Military Region which has been entrusted with the task of defending Aksai Chin.
Over the years China has laid an extensive network of tunnels in Aksai Chin for its military and new airfields have also come up.
A barrage on the Indus to supply water to the military garrison, a 250 megawatt nuclear power plant and further north a photo imagery centre in Kashgar have also come up.
"The underground defence networks are basically for electronic monitoring, reconnaissance and surveillance and of course logistics. What it signifies is border domination efforts by China in the region," Kondapalli adds.
Experts at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis say that Aksai Chin is not the only one of its kind. They say there is a similar model for Taiwan and in China's Yunnan province there is another model targeting India.
The model in Yunnan province duplicates Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and a road is also being laid from Lhasa, which runs all along the Line of Actual Control.
It would make it convenient for the rapid response forces located in Yunnan to mobilise for any operation against India.
Experts say that scale models simulations are all crucial to military training programmes but the scale of China's operations suggest that in the era of confidence building there's something lacking in the India China relationship.
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