China admits 4 soldiers killed in Galwan clash

New Delhi: Four Chinese soldiers were killed in the fierce clash with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) acknowledged for the first time on Friday.
China's military authorities have honoured two officers and three soldiers, including four who received the awards posthumously, for defending the country's western border, the official Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the The People's Liberation Army Daily, the newspaper of the Chinese military.
Five Chinese frontier officers and soldiers stationed in the Karakoram Mountains have been recognised by the Central Military Commission of China (CMC) for their sacrifice in the border confrontation with India, which occurred in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, the PLA Daily said.
The CMC is headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China.
The title of "border-defending hero" was conferred on Battalion Commander Chen Hongjun posthumously, while Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran received first-class merit. Qi Fabao, who was seriously injured in the skirmish, received the title of "hero regiment commander for defending the border," the Xinhua report said.
Three PLA soldiers were killed in the combat while another soldier died while crossing the icy river when he went to support his army mates.
Asked why China chose to reveal the casualties suffered during the Galwan incident after over eight months, Hua said, "the report has been revealed to give the truth to the public because the truth is long awaited and is necessary for the people to know the true story."
India has said that 20 of its soldiers were killed in the fierce hand-to-hand combat on June 15 in Galwan Valley, an incident that marked the most serious military conflicts between the two sides in over four decades.
While China acknowledged casualties, it did not disclose details.
"These heroes will along will be remembered by the Chinese people. Their sacrifices made to defend our territory will never be forgotten by the Chinese people, she said.
"We all know that conflict broke out in Galwan in June last year and responsibility does not rest with Chinese side," Hua claimed.
"We hope the border issue will be put in a proper place in our bilateral relations. We hope to work with the Indian side to properly resolve the issue and uphold the general picture and the interests of the bilateral ties , Hua said.
"India is an important neighbour of China and restoring a healthy stable relationship is the aspiration and also in the interest of the two peoples. I hope the Indian side will work with us towards achieving this shared goal," she said.
Asked whether the details of the Galwan incident revealed by China today will impact Saturday's 10th round of Commanders-level talks to discuss further disengagement of troops, Hua said these are two separate issues.
"Through diplomatic and military channels of the two sides are in communications in completing the disengagement smoothly," she added.
"We hope the Indian side will bear in mind the general interest of bilateral relations and bring the ties to the right track. What we released is just the facts and the truth, she said.
The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong Lake areas and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.
The Chinese soldiers used stones, nail-studded sticks, iron rods and clubs in carrying out brutal attacks on Indian soldiers after they protested the erection of a surveillance post by China on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control in Galwan.
The PLA Daily claimed that the Indian soldiers attacked the Chinese military personnel with steel tubes and cudgels and threw stones.
This is the first time China has acknowledged casualties and details of these officers and soldiers' sacrifice, four of whom died when dealing with the Indian military's "illegal trespassing" of the Galwan Valley Line of Actual Control (LAC), the report said.
While India has announced the casualties immediately after the incident, China did not officially acknowledge the casualties until Friday.
The Russian official news agency TASS reported on February 10 that 45 Chinese servicemen were killed in the Galwan Valley clash. According to an American intelligence report last year, the number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35.
The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet, while India contests it.
The Global Times, a tabloid, part of the ruling Communist Party of China-run People's Daily group of publications, said the PLA Daily while acknowledging the Galwan Valley casualties stated that the five were killed fighting the "foreign military".
It is noticeable that the PLA Daily report used "foreign military" to refer to the Indian military, a move that showed China's kindness of not inciting sentiments of the people against the background of the current disengagement of troops from China and India along the border areas , the Global Times report said.
The admission of the casualties by the PLA coincides with the ongoing disengagement of troops by both sides at the North and South banks of the Pangong Lake, the most contentious part of the standoff which began in May last year.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Indian and Chinese soldiers are seen in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in a new video of last year’s border faceoff tweeted by Chinese state media. The video showing the confrontation between Indian and Chinese soldiers in June last year comes after China officially acknowledged it also suffered casualties in the violent faceoff, and named four officers and soldiers who died in the border clash.
A tweet by Chinese state media analyst Shen Shiwei alleges Indian troops “trespassed into Chinese side”. However, in another video tweeted by Shen, Chinese soldiers are seen to be behaving aggressively at an Indian soldier.
Shen even goes on to comment that an officer of the People’s Liberation Army, seen in the video, was honoured with recognition for border defence in Galwan Valley – in contradiction of his claim that Indian troops were the aggressor.
The Chinese state media video – clearly another attempt at propaganda – shows a large group of soldiers from both sides crossing a river in biting cold and meeting on the rocky banks, where some of them are seen pushing each other to go back. As night falls, soldiers from both sides are seen with flashlights, batons and shields standing on the edge of a cliff.