Intelligence shared by the US military helped the Indian military deter an incursion by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in a disputed border region in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh last year, new sources have claimed.
Efficient Intelligence-Sharing
According to an exclusive report published by US News on Monday, “unprecedented intelligence-sharing” by the US military caught the PLA “off-guard,” “enraged Beijing” and possibly “forced the Chinese Communist Party to reconsider its approach to land grabs along its borders.”
“The US government for the first time provided real-time details to its Indian counterparts of the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion,” a source familiar with the matter told US News. The intelligence included “actionable satellite imagery” and was “more detailed and delivered more quickly than anything the US had previously shared with the Indian military.”
Successful Defence and Deterrence
The intelligence sharing helped, as the subsequent clash between the two neighbours on 9 December, which involved hundreds of troops fighting with tasers and spiked clubs, did not result in any deaths.
Instead, the casualties were limited to around a dozen injuries and the clash ended with the PLA retreating.
SCOOP: U.S. intelligence helped India rout China in a clash late last year in the high Himalayas: https://t.co/HY9YxIL5hb
— Paul D. Shinkman (@PDShinkman) March 20, 2023
Advanced US-India Cooperation
Citing “highly reliable” sources familiar with the intelligence, US News said that “the US government in the weeks before the encounter was fully cognizant that China was carrying out test exercises in the region to see if it could seize a new foothold in the remote mountain passes there or in other territory to which both China and India lay claim.”
“[The Indian forces] were waiting. And that’s because the US had given India everything to be fully prepared for this,” the media house’s source said. They added that the incident “demonstrates a test case of the success of how the two militaries are now cooperating and sharing intelligence.”
Details of the encounter and Washington’s role in it have been confirmed by several current and former analysts and officials, some speaking on the condition of anonymity.