00:00China is spending more than $40 billion on this railway through the Himalayas.
00:05Once complete, it will connect Chengdu, a major city in southwestern China, to Lhasa,
00:10the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, lowering the travel time from 34 hours to
00:1513 hours.
00:17This is just one part of a massive construction spree along China's roughly 2,000-mile land
00:22border with India.
00:23Both countries have disputed the exact border for decades, but the dynamic has shifted drastically
00:29over the last several years, as China has invested in extensive roads, heliports and airports,
00:35and it's building or expanding hundreds of border villages.
00:39China has generally argued the build-up is focused on economic development, but the potential
00:44military applications of this infrastructure has some Indian officials concerned, and experts
00:49say China's extreme efforts to dominate the region are creating an increasingly flammable
00:54situation between two major world powers.
00:59The Chinese military's Western Theatre Command is massive, about 2.6 million square miles,
01:05more than 80% of the area of the contiguous United States.
01:09Much of this region has long been remote, inaccessible and poor.
01:13This is very punishing terrain we're talking about.
01:16Since the 90s, China has built thousands of miles of roads through Tibet, especially in recent years.
01:22Many of these go parallel to or extremely close to the border, which has made these areas much
01:27more accessible.
01:28Because many of these roads could also be used for military purposes, what experts call dual-use,
01:33it's also controversial.
01:34In 2020, for instance, India's construction of a road near the border was cited as a contributing
01:40factor to a deadly clash between Chinese and Indian troops in Ladakh.
01:44India has continued building some roads by the border, including some impressive projects like a tunnel across the Sela Pass.
01:51And a more than 1,000-mile Arunachal Frontier Highway is currently in progress.
01:57But India's border roads are more limited overall, and most of its projects are smaller.
02:01In addition to roads, China has also invested heavily in trains along the corridor.
02:06The primary purpose of these high-speed railway lines is connectivity.
02:10But the fact of the matter is, once you have a high-speed rail, it takes only an order to
02:15make sure that instead of tourists, you have soldiers being transported on those railway lines.
02:19And that's where the challenge comes.
02:21The concern is that this infrastructure network could enable a small dispute in a remote territory
02:27to quickly spiral into a large conflict.
02:30China's ability to mobilise its forces on the Indian border has changed dramatically over time.
02:35In the late 90s, early 2000s, people were talking about a month that Chinese forces would
02:39need to mobilise and then actually go for war with India.
02:43Now we hear about a time period of five to seven days.
02:46In 2006, China completed the first major train line in Tibet, the Shanghai-Tibet Railroad.
02:52The government spent more than $4 billion to connect the Western Chinese city of Xining to Lhasa.
02:57Now it's working on something even more ambitious.
03:00The Sichuan-Tibet Railway, which would speed up the journey through the Himalayas, directly
03:04connecting the headquarters of the PLA's Western Theatre Command to the capital of the Tibet
03:09Autonomous Region.
03:10For China, this is important to make Tibet more accessible.
03:14For India, though, it means easier Chinese access to the disputed border.
03:19India has plans to increase trains on its side of the border.
03:22But its overall system is much more limited.
03:25As far as the railway lines are concerned, Indian infrastructure is non-existent.
03:29Another area of Indian concern is China's increasing air power along the corridor.
03:34India has a much larger numerical air force advantage against China.
03:39Firstly, it has a lot more air bases and they are also located a lot closer to the front line
03:47than the Chinese ones are.
03:49But another element of this is that China has the most missile-centric concept of warfare anywhere in the world.
03:56China is estimated to have more than 600 nuclear warheads, many of which could reach India.
04:02India is estimated to have only 180 nuclear warheads.
04:06While both countries have sophisticated aircraft in their arsenal, this is another area where China has made significant strides.
04:12It is an interesting time to actually look at air power and the air picture along China-India border,
04:18particularly given India-Pakistan conflict in which the Pakistan side used China-manufactured aircraft in actual combat.
04:26It's definitely quite a sobering moment, I think, for the Indian military.
04:31Another significant part of China's border development effort has been moving citizens closer to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
04:39China claims this is actually part of its own territory.
04:42Between 2018 and 2023, China's registered population in border areas increased by 10.5%, according to government work reports.
04:51India has started a similar initiative, what it's calling the Vibrant Villagers Programme, but it's not as advanced.
04:57Some China watchers worry border villages could be used by China as military staging posts in a potential conflict.
05:03Or at the very least, they're a way for China to strengthen its claim to the land where they sit.
05:08To some degree, the Chinese government's calculation is really about creating political bargaining chips and facts on the ground, potentially for political negotiations.
05:21China uses so-called active defence on many of its borders.
05:24It's also known for pressing neighbours into difficult positions by using what experts refer to as salami-slicing tactics,
05:32where it gets away with major power grabs by cutting them into many incremental moves that are too small to meet much resistance.
05:39While China and India have made some steps recently to improve their relationship over the border, experts say the situation remains tense.
05:47For instance, China recently issued new Chinese names for dozens of places in the Indian-controlled territory of Arunachal Pradesh, which it also claims.
05:57As of today, the relationship is really at an inflection point because both countries really need each other and India has the capacity to absorb a lot of China's overcapacity in many ways.
06:09And India obviously is in need of China's investment.
06:12But that all being said, what they're doing is essentially building up infrastructure, due use facilities and trying to better position themselves or in the event of a conflict.
06:26Despite both sides may not want wars, but miscalculation and misperceptions may eventually be a big problem.
06:42Well, let's say, there's a long way to go.
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