Liu Caiyu, Ji Yuqiao — According to an article released by the WeChat account of the PLA Ground Force on Saturday, the PLA in the Tibet Military Command is equipped with the new howitzer, which Chinese military analysts said is supposed to be the PLC-181 vehicle-mounted howitzer.
Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, confirmed with the Global Times Monday that the howitzer has a 52-calibre cannon with a range of over 50 kilometres and shoots laser-guided and satellite-guided projectiles.
It will boost the high-altitude combat capability of the PLA in Tibet, Song said.
As part of military training in 2019, an artillery brigade in the Tibet Military Command ordered soldiers to take part in a military skills competition at a training ground on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 3,700 meters above sea level.
China's border issue has not been completely resolved, and was challenged by pro-Tibet independence forces and terrorists, analyst noted.
Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times on Monday that the military investment in Tibet has been rising, but is primarily meant for defence and not to provoke conflict with neighbouring countries.
The PLA troops stationed in Tibet need to improve their combat capabilities in plateau areas and strengthen their willpower in extreme weather as they are primarily responsible for the border defence against terrorists and foreign invaders, he said.
To cope with altitude sickness, the PLA built oxygen stations for the soldiers in Tibet in 2015, which were used for medical purposes, but are now also being used in regular training, according to a press release on the Ministry of National Defence's website in August 2018.
In August, an armoured infantry of the Tibet Military Command conducted a drill on a plateau 4,800 meters above sea level, according to a report from chinanews.com.
This article originally appeared on the Global Times website.