Zhang Chiahou's Blog, page 12

Satellite images show new Chinese structures near site of border clash with India

SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – China appears to have added new structures near the site of a deadly border clash with India in the western Himalayas, fresh satellite pictures show, heightening concerns about further flare-ups between the nuclear-armed neighbours.FILE PHOTO: Maxar

WorldView-3 satellite image shows close up view of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) border and patrol point 14 in the eastern Ladakh sector of Galwan Valley June 22, 2020. Maxar Technologies via REUTERS

Indian and Chinese military commanders agreed on Monday to step back from a weeks-old standoff at several locations along their disputed border following the June 15 clash in the Galwan Valley in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

The satellite images showing new construction activity in the week following the brutal hand-to-hand combat underline the challenge of disengagement and the risk the accord could still fall apart because of overlapping claims in the arid territory.

(Open tmsnrt.rs/2Z6f0AZ in an external browser to see an interactive graphic of these satellite images)

The pictures shot on Monday by U.S.-based space technology firm Maxar Technologies show what appear to be extensive Chinese structures on a raised river terrace overlooking the Galwan River.

India says the area where the structures have sprung up are on its side of the poorly defined, undemarcated Line of Actual Control or the de facto border between the two Asian giants.

China says the whole of Galwan valley, located at about 14,000ft (4,300m), is its territory and blames Indian troops for triggering the clashes.

The new activity includes camouflaged tents or covered structures against the base of cliff, and a short distance away, a potential new camp under construction with walls or barricades. The camp was not seen in pictures made available to Reuters the previous week.

Nathan Ruser, a satellite data expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the buildup suggested there was little sign of de-escalation.

“Satellite imagery from the Galwan Valley on June 22nd shows that ‘disengagement’ really isn’t the word that the (Indian) government should be using,” he said in a post on Twitter.

On the Indian side, defensive barriers can be seen in the latest images which were not visible in pictures taken in May. An Indian forward post appears to be scaled back compared with images a month ago.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the apparent activity.

India’s defence ministry also did not respond to a request for a comment.

Indian military officials have previously said they will be closely monitoring the planned disengagement process and verify it on the ground.

“There is a trust deficit so far as the Chinese are concerned,” said former Indian army chief Deepak Kapoor.

“So if they are telling us verbally they are ready to pull back, we will wait to see it on the ground. Until then the armed forces will be on alert.”

Source: Reuters

China-India border clash stokes contrasting domestic responses

BEIJING/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The skirmish between Chinese and Indian troops over a long-disputed border this month is being treated in New Delhi as the country’s worst diplomatic crisis in decades even as it is downplayed by Beijing.

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators burn products made in China and a defaced poster of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a protest against China, in New Delhi, India, June 22, 2020. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

China is already locked in diplomatic combat over a host of disputes, from the United States and Australia to Taiwan and Hong Kong, and its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. It is loath to engage on yet another front – especially one that could push New Delhi closer to Washington, some analysts say.

The two sides were working to ease tensions, China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Chinese media coverage has been scant.

Beijing’s response also points to its interest in de-escalating a crisis over a stretch of border that is less politically important than other territorial priorities, such as claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea and its tightening grip on Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

The contrast reflects the differences in two systems of government – India is the world’s biggest democracy, while China is ruled by the Communist Party and tightly controls its media – as well as the domestic realities of a dispute that has little political upside for the leaders of either country.

Since the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers in hand-to-hand fighting in the Galwan Valley, in the worst combat losses on the de facto border with China in more than 50 years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a strident nationalist, has faced heated calls for a strong response.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is under no such public pressure.

“Indians watch everything that China is doing, but most Chinese only have eyes for international issues related to the U.S. or Taiwan,” said Zhang Jiadong, director of the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Both governments would prefer to play down the clash, he said, but information from the remote battlefield leaking into Indian media forces Modi’s hand in a way that would not be possible in China.

“The clash happened because troops from both sides have a different understanding of where the line of actual control lies,” he said.

“This area is a barren hilltop with no economic or geostrategic value. From the Chinese government point of view, it is not worth destabilising bilateral relations over this,” said Zhang.

The border clash did not crack the top 50 searches on China’s Twitter-like Weibo on Tuesday.

PRESSURE DIFFERENTIAL

In India, opposition leaders, former generals and diplomats have criticised Modi for failing to protect Indian lives and territory. Many have called for boycotts of Chinese goods. The story garners wall-to-wall coverage in domestic media.

The perceived threat from China – which humiliated India in a brief border war in 1962 – has overshadowed India’s COVID crisis, in which the number of cases has crossed 400,000 with no sign of a peak.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India stands behind Modi, but he must bear responsibility.Slideshow (5 Images)

“We stand at historic crossroads. Our government’s decisions and actions will have serious bearings on how the future generations perceive us,” he said.

Such language makes it harder for Modi to compromise without losing face, analysts say.

Modi rode to power in 2014 vowing to turn India into an economic and military power, but China has pulled further ahead on his watch. Its economy is five times the size of India’s, with three times the military spending.

Control Risks said in a note that Modi’s administration will likely employ economic measures against China to placate public pressure, instead of risking military conflict with a stronger adversary.

Source: Reuters

China puts final satellite into orbit to try to rival GPS network

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Tuesday successfully put into orbit its final Beidou satellite, completing a navigation network years in the making and setting the stage to challenge the U.S.-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).

A Long March-3B carrier rocket carrying the Beidou-3 satellite, the last satellite of China’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System, takes off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, China June 23, 2020. China Daily via REUTERS

The idea to develop Beidou, or the Big Dipper in Chinese, took shape in the 1990s as China’s military sought to reduce its reliance on GPS, which is run by the U.S. Air Force.

Coverage was limited to China when the first Beidou-1 satellites were launched in 2000. Now Beidou-related services such as traffic monitoring have been exported to about 120 countries.

As use of mobile devices expanded, China in 2003 tried to join the Galileo satellite navigation project proposed by the European Union but later pulled out to focus on Beidou.

The second generation of Beidou-2 satellites went into operation in 2012, covering the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2015, China began deploying the third generation of Beidou-3 satellites aimed at global coverage. The one launched on Tuesday was the 35th Beidou-3 satellite – with analysts looking at the system’s reliability and how it is rolled out.

“The civil signal from Beidou is no better than GPS or Galileo,” said Alexandra Stickings, a research analyst at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, a Britain-based think-tank.

“From a defence perspective, it is difficult to say whether Beidou is superior. One hurdle that will have to be faced will be upgrading receivers across military platforms, which will take time.”

Source: Reuters

Indian, Chinese commanders hold parley on border, growing calls to boycott Chinese goods

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian and Chinese military commanders held a second round of talks to ease tensions at their contested border on Monday, as the public mood hardened in India for a military and economic riposte to China following the worst clash in over five decades.

FILE PHOTO: An Indian Army convoy moves along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

An Indian government source said corps commanders from both sides met in Moldo, on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border dividing India’s Ladakh region from the Chinese held Aksai Chin, high in the western Himalayas.

Lower ranking officers had attended the first parley last Thursday after the brutal clash June 15, when soldiers fought with rocks, metal rods and wooden clubs.

While blaming each other’s for the bloodshed, the two governments have sought to avoid any escalation that could risk further conflict between the two nuclear armed states.

Under long observed protocols, both militaries refrain from firing weapons, and the last time there was a deadly clash on the disputed border was in 1967.

The Indian foreign ministry has, however, described the fighting that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and at least 76 injured as a “pre-meditated and planned action” by China.

For its part, China has accused Indian troops of violating a military agreement, and provoking and attacking its troops in the Galwan valley in Ladakh. China has not disclosed how many casualties it suffered, though an Indian minister has said around 40 Chinese soldiers may have been killed.

Shocked and angered by the death of their soldiers, Indians have been calling for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government to show India will not be bullied, bitterly remembering how China humiliated their country in a war in 1962.

Members of an Indian traders body set alight a pile of Chinese goods at a New Delhi market, pushing for a nationwide boycott of products from its northern neighbour.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents some 70 million traders, has asked federal and state governments to support a boycott of Chinese goods and cancel government contracts awarded to Chinese companies.

“The entire nation is filled with extreme anger and intensity to give a strong befitting response to China not only militarily but also economically,” CAIT National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal wrote in a letter to chief ministers of some Indian states.

China is India’s second-biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth $87 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2019, and a trade deficit of $53.57 billion in China’s favour, the widest India has with any country.

The traders body, which advocates self reliance and has been a vocal supporter of Modi’s nationalist policies, has also asked the federal commerce ministry to amend rules and make it mandatory for e-commerce platforms to mark the country of origin for all products.

“Most of the e-commerce portals are selling Chinese goods for which the consumer remains unaware,” CAIT said in a statement.

The editor-in-chief of China’s Global Times newspaper warned that the “nationalists of India need to cool down.” The Global Times is published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.

“China’s GDP is 5 times that of India, military spending is 3 time,” Global Times editor Hu Xijin said in a post on Twitter.Police officers detain a demonstrator during a protest against China, in New Delhi, India, June 22, 2020. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Since coming to power in 2014, Modi has sought to improve relations with China, hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping most recently for an informal summit in southern India last year.

The confrontation in the Himalayas means Modi now has to reassess relations with China, posing possibly the most difficult foreign policy questions he has faced so far.

“At this moment, we stand at historic crossroads,” former prime minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement, “Our government’s decisions and actions will have serious bearings on how the future generations perceive us.”

Source: Reuters

China likely lost at least 40 soldiers in border clash – Indian minister

MUMBAI (Reuters) – China lost at least 40 soldiers in a clash with India at their disputed border this week, a federal government minister has said, as the nuclear-armed countries remained locked in confrontation on the frontline on Sunday.

FILE PHOTO: An Indian Army convoy moves along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

China has not said anything about any losses in the hand-to-hand combat that took place in the heavily contested Galwan Valley in the western Himalayas, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed and at least 76 injured.

“If 20 were martyred on our (Indian) side, then there would have been at least double the casualties on their (China) side,” V.K.Singh, the minister for roads and transport, told TV News24 in an interview broadcast late on Saturday.

Singh, who is a former army chief, did not provide any evidence to support his statement. He said China historically never accepted any war casualties including in the 1962 conflict with India.

China’s state controlled Global Times said earlier there had been casualties on the Chinese side but did not elaborate.

Singh said the Indian side had handed over Chinese troops who had strayed into Indian territory after the violent standoff.

India’s defence ministry spokesman Bharat Bhushan Babu refused to comment on Singh’s interview.

The nuclear-armed Asian neighbours traded accusations on Saturday that the other had violated their shared de facto border, an area that this week became the site of their deadliest clash in half a century.

Source: Reuters

India’s Modi says there was no border intrusion in deadly clash with China

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to downplay a clash with Chinese troops in a disputed Himalayan region that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and more than 70 injured, saying on Friday there had been no intrusion across his country’s borders.

“Nobody has intruded into our border, neither is anybody there now, nor have our posts been captured,” Modi said, referring to Ladakh’s Galwan valley, where hand-to-hand fighting between soldiers from the nuclear-armed neighbours took place earlier this week.

India and China are attempting to cool tensions after the deadliest clash in at least five decades, with military-level talks taking place in an attempt to deescalate the confrontation.

But Modi’s comments, made in a televised statement at the end of an all-party meeting to discuss the incident, contrasted with his government’s earlier stance.

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had told a senior Chinese diplomat that the dispute was triggered after “the Chinese side sought to erect a structure in Galwan valley on our side of the LAC,” according to a ministry statement.

The LAC refers to the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border that has been a constant source of friction in the region where India and China fought a brief war in 1962.

With his nation in shock over the loss its soldiers lives, Modi faces one of the most difficult foreign policy challenges since he came to power in 2014.

On Friday evening, some opposition parties questioned why the government was not better prepared.An Indian Army convoy moves along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district June 18, 2020.

REUTERS/Danish Ismail

“Does the government not receive, on a regular basis, satellite pictures of the borders of our country? Did our external intelligence agencies not report any unusual activity along the LAC?” said Sonia Gandhi, president of the opposition Congress party.

SOLDIERS RETURNED

Earlier on Friday, an Indian government source said that China had returned 10 Indian soldiers captured during the battle.

In a briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied any Indian troops had been in its custody.

“As far as I know China hasn’t seized any Indian personnel,” Zhao said.

The Indian army did not comment on the release, which according to the source took place on Thursday evening, instead referring to a government statement that said all of its soldiers were accounted for.

India has said the Chinese side also suffered casualties in the clash, but China has not disclosed any.

Military officials have since held talks, but there is no sign of a breakthrough.

“The situation remains as it was, there is no disengagement, but there is also no further build up of forces,” said a second Indian government source, who is aware of the ground situation.

The official said at least 76 Indian troops were wounded during the clash, and had been hospitalised.An ambulance moves past an Indian Army convoy along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

“No one is critical as of now,” he said.

U.S. SYMPATHY

The United States offered condolences to India on Friday.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the people of India for the lives lost as a result of the recent confrontation with China,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a message posted on Twitter.

“We will remember the soldiers’ families, loved ones, and communities as they grieve.”

Having actively sought greater economic engagement with China, Modi is compelled to review the state of those ties, just at a time when Sino-U.S. relations have also deteriorated.

As a non-aligned nation, India has always sought to balance the influence of super-powers.

But in the past two decades, New Delhi has built closer political and defence ties with Washington, and the United States has become one of India’s top arms suppliers.

Source: Reuters

China hands back 10 Indian soldiers taken during border clash – Indian official source

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – China has returned 10 Indian soldiers captured during a deadly border clash earlier this week, a Indian government source said on Friday, as two Asian nuclear powers sought to de-escalate tensions on their disputed border in the western Himalayas.An Indian Army convoy moves along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district June 18, 2020.

REUTERS/Danish Ismail

The Indian army did not comment on the release, which according to the source took place on Thursday evening, instead referring to a government statement that said all of its soldiers were accounted for.

Twenty Indian soldiers, including an officer were killed in vicious hand-to-hand combat on Monday night in the Galwan Valley, according to the government, making it the deadliest clash on the India-China border in more than five decades.

India has said the Chinese side also suffered casualties too, but the Chinese government has not disclosed any.

Tensions remain high, despite the two governments agreeing they would seek to de-escalate the confrontation. And a day after the funerals of some of the soldiers in their hometowns, the public mood was hardening in India, with growing calls for revenge and a boycott of Chinese-made goods.

Since the clash, military officials have held talks but there is no sign of a breakthrough.

“The situation remains as it was, there is no disengagement, but there is also no further build up of forces,” said a second Indian government source, who is aware of the ground situation.

The official said at least 76 Indian troops were wounded during the clash, and had been hospitalised.

“No one is critical as of now,” he said.

With his nation in shock over the loss its soldiers lives, Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces one of the most difficult foreign policy challenges since he came to power in 2014.

On Friday evening, Modi will hold an all-party meeting in New Delhi to discuss the crisis on the border with China.

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U.S. SYMPATHY

The United States offered condolences to India on Friday over the deaths its soldiers.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the people of India for the lives lost as a result of the recent confrontation with China,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a message posted on Twitter.

“We will remember the soldiers’ families, loved ones, and communities as they grieve.”

Having actively sought greater economic engagement with China, Modi is compelled to review the state of those ties, just at a time when Sino-U.S. relations have also deteriorated.

As a non-aligned nation, India has always sought to balance the influence of super-powers, while maintaining an independent course in foreign policy matters.

But in the past two decades, New Delhi has built closer political and defence ties with Washington, and the United States has become one of India’s top arms suppliers.

In the wake of the rising tensions with Beijing, there are rising calls from top former Indian diplomats for an even tighter relationship with the United States and its allies such as Japan to help face the economic and military might of China.An ambulance moves past an Indian Army convoy along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district June 18, 2020.

REUTERS/Danish Ismail

“This is an opportunity for India to align its interests much more strongly and unequivocally with the U.S. as a principal strategic partner and infuse more energy into relations with Japan, Australia, and ASEAN,” former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao wrote in The Hindu newspaper.

India has accused the Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley of acting in a premeditated manner, attacking Indian soldiers with iron rods and batons studded with nails.

Satellite images suggest that in the days leading up to the clash, China brought in heavy machinery, cut a trail into the mountainside and may have even dammed a river.

The images taken a day after the clash show an increase in activity from a week earlier.

Source: Reuters

India holds funerals for soldiers killed in China border clash as tensions stay high

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India prepared to hold funerals on Thursday for some of the 20 soldiers killed in brutal hand-to-hand fighting with Chinese troops in a disputed mountainous border region, as the nuclear-armed rivals sought to defuse tensions.Indian army soldiers stand around the coffin of their colleague, who was killed in a border clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh region, during a wreath laying ceremony in Patna, India, June 17, 2020.

Troops remained on alert at the Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region of the western Himalayas three days after the clashes, in which India said China had also suffered casualties. China has not given details of any deaths or injuries among its troops.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar spoke to senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Wednesday and the two sides agreed not to take any steps to escalate matters and instead ensure peace and stability on the contested frontier.

An Indian official said senior military officers from both sides were holding talks on Thursday to defuse tensions. The talks were ongoing, the official said.

But both Jaishankar and Wang Yi traded blame for the deadliest border clash since 1967 and called for the other side to rein in their troops.

“The need of the hour was for Chinese side to reassess its action and take corrective action,” the Indian foreign ministry quoted Jaishankar has telling Wang.

The Chinese diplomat said India must punish those responsible for the conflict and control its frontline troops, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Hardline nationalist groups with ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party have stepped up calls for a boycott of Chinese goods and a cancellation of contracts with Chinese firms.

China’s Oppo cancelled the live online launch of its flagship smartphone in India.

In the western Indian city of Surat, a group of people gathered on Wednesday and threw a Chinese-made television set on the ground and stomped on it in a show of protest.

“In the current situation, the China issue should not be taken lightly…In many cases, there may be Chinese money invested, but I think the regular things we buy from the market, one should certainly make sure that we avoid Chinese products,” Food and Consumer Affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan told the Economic Times.

STRIDENT NATIONALIST

Russia, which is close to both nations, said on Wednesday it hoped India and China would find mutually acceptable ways to ensure security on their border, Interfax news agency reported.

Rising tensions with China – whose economy is five times bigger than India’s and spends three times as much money on its military – has become Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most serious foreign policy challenge since he took power in 2014.

A strident nationalist, Modi was elected to a second five-year term in May 2019 following a campaign focused on national security after spiralling tensions with old enemy Pakistan, on India’s western border.

Following Monday’s violence, he is under pressure from the opposition and the gung-ho Indian media to respond strongly to China.

China and India fought a brief border war in 1962 and have had occasional flare-ups when patrols have confronted each other at the poorly defined Line of Actual Control, the de facto border.

But on Monday night, hundreds of soldiers fought with iron rods and clubs studded with nails in the freezing heights for several hours. Under agreements in the 1990s, the two sides have said they will not use arms near the border.

Dozens of people lined the street in the southern Indian town of Suryapet as the body of army Colonel B.Santosh Babu was brought home, wrapped in the Indian flag .

Funerals of other soldiers will also be taking place in their hometowns and villages, including several in the eastern state of Bihar.

“The sacrifice of our soldiers will not be allowed to go waste,” Modi said.

India’s financial markets reacted nervously initially, but steadied later in the day.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was last up 1.34% at 10,013.50 at 0815 GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 1.26% at 33,930.87.

Source: Reuters

India awaits Modi’s response to China after 20 killed in clubs and stones border clash

NEW DELHI/BEIJING (Reuters) – India impatiently awaited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s response on Wednesday to the death of at least 20 soldiers in a border clash with Chinese troops as the country’s media vented its fury and political rivals goaded Modi over his silence.Indian army soldiers carry the body of their colleague, who was killed in a border clash with Chinese troops, to an autopsy center at the Sonam Norboo Memorial Hospital in Leh, June 17, 2020. REUTERS/Stringer

Modi, in a Twitter message, called for an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss the situation, but did not make any other comment on the confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

China’s said it does not want to see any more clashes on the border with India following Monday’s violence. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reiterated that China was not to be blamed for the clash and said the overall situation at the border was stable and controllable.

According to Indian officials no shots were fired, but soldiers were hit with clubs and stones during a brawl that erupted between the two sides in the remote Galwan Valley, high in the mountains where India’s Ladakh region borders China’s Aksai Chin to the east.

RELATED COVERAGE



China says it does not want to see any more clashes on border with India

India’s foreign ministry said there had been casualties on both sides, but China has not disclosed any casualties so far.

Modi, who rode to power on a nationalist platform, met his defence and foreign ministers and the military chiefs late on Tuesday, but he had yet to speak publicly on the worst clash between the two countries since 1967, five years after China had humiliated India in a war.

Modi was elected to a second five-year term in May 2019 following a campaign focused on national security after spiralling tensions with old enemy Pakistan, on India’s western border.

“Gloves are off, with the Galwan valley clash, China pushed too hard,” the Times of India wrote in an editorial. “India must push back.”

“Beijing can’t kill our soldiers at the border and expect to benefit from our huge market,” it continued, advocating sanctions against Chinese imports.

Facing what could his greatest foreign policy challenge since coming to power in 2014, Modi refrained from commenting publicly on the incident as a clamour for action rose over the past day.

“Why is the PM silent, why is he hiding,” Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party tweeted. “Enough is enough, We need to know what happened. How dare China kill our soldiers, how dare they take our land.”

Hundreds of Indian and Chinese troops have been facing each other since early May at three or four locations in the uninhabited high-altitude deserts of Ladakh.

India says Chinese troops have intruded into its side of the Line of Actual Control or the de facto border.

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China rejects the allegation and has asked India not to build roads in the area, claiming it to be its territory.

COLONEL KILLED

According to the Indian government sources, the fighting on Monday night broke out during a meeting to discuss ways to de-escalate tensions, and the colonel commanding the Indian side was one of the first to be struck and killed.

Many of the other Indian soldiers who died had succumbed to their wounds, having been unable to survive the night in freezing temperatures.

Unlike in India, the incident did not receive wall-to-wall coverage in China, where official media reported a statement on the incident from the spokesperson for the Chinese army’s Western Command.Slideshow (9 Images)

On social media, bloggers and media aggregating platforms shared Indian media reports, such as the Indian army’s announcement acknowledging that the death toll had risen to 20.

Most vocal was the Global Times, a paper published by the official paper of the country’s ruling Communist Party.

Its editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin, took to domestic and global social media platforms to scold India, saying “Indian public opinion needs to stay sober” and to warn that China did not fear a clash.

India China border clash in the Galwan Valley: here

Source: Reuters

Chinese military suffers casualties in clash with India – Global Times editor

BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese military suffered casualties in a border clash with Indian soldiers, the editor-in-chief of China’s Global Times newspaper said on Tuesday.

“Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash,” Hu Xijin said in a tweet. He did not give further details.

The Global Times is published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.

Source: Reuters