China’s President Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), on January 4, 2021 signed the first order of the CMC for 2021, this being the mobilisation orders for the projected training exercises of the People’s Liberation Army’s PLAGF, PLAN and PLAAF and for the People’s Armed Police that are planned for this year. To commemorate this event, a gramd show of force was staged by the Tibet Military District at Hanbo in Lhasa, which included a display of the TMD’s warfighting assets, as well as a flypast over Lhasa by the newly service-inducted Z-20 medium-lift helicopters.
And while the PLAAF has over the past two years accelerated the deployment of HQ-22 MR-SAMs and HQ-17 SHORADS in both the Tibet and Xinjiang military districts, the PLAGF has begun service-inducting the LY-80 MR-SAM in greater numbers.
