BEIJING (AP) – The Chinese military said on Friday that four of its soldiers were killed in a collision with Indian forces at the high mountain borders last year, the first time Beijing has publicly admitted that its party has taken casualties in the deadliest incident among the Asian giants in almost 45 years.
The announcement, which comes more than six months after the bloody hand-to-hand fighting, should help the global public to “understand the truth and right and wrong of the incident,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. Hua Chunying affairs.
Still, the delay also seemed to reflect China’s culture of military secrecy, as well as concerns about the potential domestic and international consequences of the bloodshed.
Immediately after the collision in June 2020 on a high ridge in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh region, India announced that it had lost 20 of its soldiers in combat using fists, clubs, stones and other improvised weapons to avoid a firefight.
It was believed that China had also claimed casualties, but did not provide details, saying it did not want to flare up tensions further.
The announcement that it was losing soldiers came when the two sides completed a phased withdrawal from one of their original positions after several rounds of negotiations.
Indian and Chinese forces have completed the withdrawal from the southern and northern shores of Pangong Lake, an Indian army officer said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The withdrawal was started on February 10th.
On Saturday, there will be talks on the command of the commander to discuss withdrawal from other areas, the officer said.
The Chinese announcement came in the army newspaper People’s Liberation Army Daily, which said the four killed were named state martyrs.
The title of “frontier-defending hero” was awarded to battalion commander Chen Hongjun, while Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran received first-class merit. It attributed their deaths to “collision with invading foreign military personnel,” without directly naming India.
Qi Fabao, a regimental commander who was injured in the collision, was given the title of “hero regimental commander for defending the border”.
A short video of the two soldiers colliding with each other last June was shown Friday night by the special military channel of China’s state broadcaster CCTV, including a confrontation in a river with sticks and shields during the day and another at night. Qi was shown screaming and gesticulating among the soldiers, with a voiceover saying he insisted that matters be handled according to agreed procedures. Chinese troops wore helmets and body armor of the type used by riot police, and later at least one Chinese soldier was treated in the field for a bloody head wound.
Accompanied by dramatic orchestral music and slick production values, photos of the four dead soldiers were then shown against a backdrop of snow-capped mountain peaks. At the end of the segment, troops were again shown patrolling and practicing on foot and in tanks, although the exact times and locations were not clear.
In the first days after the collision, unconfirmed reports in the Indian media put the number of Chinese dead at 45. More recently, an Indian security official said Friday that the military estimates that at least 14 Chinese soldiers were injured, eight of whom died later. .
That assessment was based on the number of stretchers used to remove the injured, input from a Chinese forward hospital, and field reports. Another security official offered a similar story, saying that at least 12 Chinese soldiers had been seriously injured in the incident.
Both spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with government regulations.
Hua, the Chinese spokesman, said: “The Indian side has repeatedly exaggerated and hyped the victims, distorted the truth and misled international public opinion. Now the PLA Daily has released a report on the incident to reveal the truth. “
The tense standoff in the Karakoram Mountains began in early May, when Indian and Chinese soldiers ignored each other’s repeated verbal warnings, leading to a shouting match, stone throwing and fist fights on the northern shore of Pangong Lake.
By June, frictions had spread north to Depsang and the Galwan Valley, where India built an all-weather military road along the disputed border. Both countries stationed tens of thousands of soldiers, supported by artillery, tanks and fighter jets, along the de facto border called the Line of Actual Control, or LAC, with troops settling in for the harsh winter.
Troops withdrew from the Galwan Valley shortly after the clashes in June, and have now done so from Lake Pangong. They remain at a standoff in Depsang and at least two other places, Gogra and Hot Springs.
Lieutenant General YK Joshi, who is in command of the Northern Command of the Indian Army, told India’s News18 station that China seemed unwilling to make concessions until Indian forces occupied the commanders. on August 29-30.
“This withdrawal is happening because we had taken the dominant position in the Kailash series. So now that the target has been reached, we are going back to the status quo ante April 2020, ”Joshi told the station.
Each side accused the other of inciting violence, which has drastically changed the relationship between India and China.
The responsibility “does not lie with China,” said Hua, adding that China has “exercised great restraint, reflecting China’s tolerance and commitment as a responsible power.”
The two sides waged a border war in 1962 that culminated in Ladakh and ended in an uneasy truce. Since then, troops have guarded the undefined border, fights from time to time. The two countries have agreed not to attack each other with firearms.
The hotly contested line of factual control stretches from Ladakh in the west to the eastern Arunachal Pradesh state of India, which claims China in its entirety. It is broken into parts where the Himalayan countries of Nepal and Bhutan sit between India and China.
According to India, the de facto border is 3,488 kilometers (2,167 miles) long, while China says it is considerably shorter. As the name suggests, the LAC divides the areas of physical control rather than territorial claims.
Hussain reported from Srinagar, India. Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.