Amid India-China Tension, Beijing Deploys Long-Range Strategic Bomber Close To LAC To 'Warn' New Delhi: Report

Amid ongoing tension with India, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed a long-range strategic H-6K bomber along its border with India.

"To mark the PLA Air Force's 72nd anniversary on November 11, state broadcaster China Central Television aired footage that included a brief shot of an H-6K flying over a mountain range, indicating the aircraft had been sent to the Himalayas," claimed a report published in South China Morning Post.

The report claimed that the PLA's move is "meant as a warning to the Indian military not to escalate tensions over winter".

The aircraft was armed with short-range KD-63 missiles - and not the long-range CJ-20 cruise missiles that it is also designed to carry, it said.

The report quoted a Beijing-based military source as saying that the H-6Ks were usually based in Shaanxi province but had been stationed in Kashgar in the neighbouring western region of Xinjiang on a temporary basis since last year.

"With a combat range of more than 3,500 km (2,200 miles), the H-6K is designed to carry long-range CJ-20 cruise missiles for attacks on land and sea targets as well as short-range missiles like the KD-63," the report said.

“It’s very easy for the PLA to fly H-6Ks to the China-India border, because the aircraft are stationed ... under the Western Theatre Command,” the source was quoted as saying.