China holding night battle drills near Ladakh, training soldiers for high-altitude combat: Report

The Chinese military’s Western Theatre Command, which guards its entire border with India, is ramping up military exercises, including night drills, in the high-altitude areas. The drills seek to familiarise its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops with new-generation weapons and equipment, says a South China Morning Post newspaper report.

"Since the start of the autumn, several forces in the Xinjiang military district (which faces India) have been carrying out night battle drills at altitudes of around 5,000 metre (16,400 feet)," said the report citing PLA Daily, a military newspaper.

Yang Yang, a company commander, said that China wants "higher standards from troops at high altitudes". “We have revised our schedules and demanded soldiers meet higher standards for high-altitude training as we need to deal with a harsher battlefield environment amid increasing challenges in the peripheral areas,” Yang was quoted as saying in the PLA Daily.