July 17 :
China’s plans to develop seven new gas fields in the East China Sea which could potentially siphon gas from the seabed beneath waters claimed by Japan, Reuters reports. State-run CNOOC wants to expand the Huangyan project to nine fields. Under the plan, Huangyan II, adjacent to the disputed maritime border, would add two new gas fields. Pingbei, an uncontested area west of the Xihu trough, would add five fields. CNOOC and Sinopec began developing two Huangyan I fields last year and will start producing gas in September. The Huangyan project will include 11 production platforms and cost more than $4.9 billion. In 2008 China and Japan agreed to jointly develop the area’s gas reserves, which in 2012 were estimated at 1-2 trillion cubic feet, but Tokyo wants to settle maritime boundary issues first.
July 18:
India will raise a 45,000 man “mountain strike corps” to secure the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. After years of planning, India’s Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved the $10.5 billion proposal, which includes raising two infantry brigades and two armored brigades headquartered in Panagarh, West Bengal. This will “give India the capability to launch offensive action in Tibet in the event of a Chinese offensive,” The Hindu reports. Indian Air Force Su 30 fighter aircraft at upgraded bases in Tezpur, Chhabua, Jorhat, Bagdogra, Hashimara and Mohanbari will support the strike force. Since 2010 India has had two infantry divisions in Lekhapani and Missamari, Assam.
[Editor’s Note: China has five state-of-the-art airbases, an extensive rail network and over 58,000 km of roads along the Indian border allowing it to move over 30 divisions (each with 15,000 soldiers) over the LAC if necessary. In March the PLA performed ground-air combat military drills in Tibet. Over the past 1.5 years the PLA has held at least 21 exercises in Tibet designed to enhance combat capabilities in high altitude conditions.]
July 22:
Over the last 11 days, PLA troops have crossed the LAC five times prompting the Indian Army in Ladakh to seek a flag meeting with their Chinese counterparts. The Press Trust of India reports that on July 20 Chinese troops crossed into Chumar, Ladakh and spent a few hours before returning across the LAC. On July 16-17 about 50 Chinese troops on horseback entered Chumar and returned the next day and Chinese military helicopters entered the area on July 11. The next day in the Depsang valley, Ladakh (the scene of a 21-day stand-off in April when Chinese troops pitched tents 19 km inside Indian administered territory) PLA troops came within 2 kilometers of Indian posts some 30 kilometers beyond the LAC.
July 23:
China has banned the construction of government buildings for five years, reports the New York Times. The joint directive from the State Council and the Communist Party barred a variety of strategies that officials had used to secure funds. It is now illegal, for instance, to expand or restore existing government compounds in the name of “street repairs” or “urban planning,” to build a new “training center” or “hotel,” or for one official to have multiple offices. One loophole in the directive, however, is that it does not restrict government-owned enterprises from building hotels or providing officials luxury suites, etc. Retired officials are instructed to give up their offices, but these offices “should be returned in time.” The new directive comes amid a roundup of grassroots anti-corruption activists that had called for officials to disclose their wealth.
[Editor’s Note: The re-organized administration became operational in March after the government merged the press and broadcasting regulators responsible for overseeing the press, publication, radio, film and television sectors as part of efforts to cut bureaucracy and administrative intervention.]
For the first time in history, PLA Navy warships have sailed around Japan, the Asahi Shimbun reports. The five ships – two guided missile destroyers, two frigates and one refueling vessel from the PLA’s North Sea Fleet – sailed into the Sea of Okhotsk through the Soya Strait, between Hokkaido and Sakhalin, and then out into the Pacific. Two guided missile destroyers from the South Sea Fleet, based in Zhanjiang, Guangdong accompanied the five warships. The vessels had taken part in the “Joint Sea-2013” naval exercises with Russia held off the coast of Vladivostok from July 8 to 12. Beijing had wanted the joint military exercise held closer to Japan, but Russia balked at the idea. After the navels maneuvers, the warships traversed the Soya Strait into the Pacific on July 14 and on July 18 held refueling and other drills. After that, they returned to China via a southerly route to complete the journey around the Japanese archipelago.