China builds missile site at Kailash-Mansarovar

New Delhi: Amid tensions with India over the standoff in Eastern Ladakh sector, China has reportedly built a site for surface-to-air missile launch near a lake, which is a part of the Kailash-Mansarovar.

The development of the missile site, according to experts, is a continuation of the aggressive provocation by the Chinese and it could further complicate the border tensions between the two countries, The Epoch Times reported.

Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar, commonly known as the Kailash-Mansarovar site is revered by four religions and is linked to culture and spiritual scriptures in India. While the Hindus consider the site as the abode of Shiva and his consort Parvati, the Tibetan Buddhists call the mountain Kang Rinpoche, the "Precious One of Glacial Snow," and revere it as the abode of Demchog and his consort, Dorje Phagmo. The Jains call the mountain Astapada and consider it to be the place where the first of their 24 spiritual masters achieved liberation.

The Bons, adherents of the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, term the mountain Tise and revere it the dwelling place of the sky goddess, Sipaimen.

The placing of the missile at the sacred site, which is also the origin of four transnational rivers -- Indus, Brahmaputra, Sutlej and Karnali, a major tributary of the Ganges, menaces India, which has refused to back down against Chinese aggression on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"In my view, first and foremost, it is a continuation of the Chinese provocation against India, which we are seeing all along from the LAC in Ladakh to the eastern and middle sector bordering areas with India," Priyajit Debsarkar, author and a geopolitical analyst with the London-based think tank Bridge India, told The Epoch Times in an e-mail.

"This move, of deploying a surface-to-air missile in Tibet, should not surprise us. It is pure authoritarian brinkmanship and provocation to India, which has refused to back down against Chinese threats and aggressive aggression," Debsarkar said.

India and China are engaged in a standoff since April-May over the transgressions by the Chinese Army in multiple areas including Finger area, Galwan valley, Hot springs and Kongrung Nala. In June, 20 Indian soldiers died in a violent face-off with Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh.

Talks between the two sides have been going on for the last three months including five Lieutenant general-level talks but have failed to yield any results, so far.