China Admits To Casualties In Galwan Valley Clashes
In a first, state-backed Chinese media on Friday confirmed it caught casualties including four dead, in the Galwan valley clashes between the People’s Liberation Army and the Indian Army in June 2020.
The news comes after the many initial rejections by China that its army had suffered any casualties, even calling the news fake. Even after the clashes on June 15, 2020, around 20 Indian soldiers had been killed in the combat declared by the Indian government. In what was termed as the worst border dispute between the two countries.
A state-sponsored media outlet People’s Dialy in china tweeted that the Chinese Military Commission had identified four PLA soldiers awarding them posthumous honorary titles and prizes.
The tweet referred to “last June’s border conflict” and not galwan directly. The colonel who led the four soldiers sustained major injuries stated in the tweet.
Four Chinese soldiers, who were sacrificed in last June’s border conflict, were posthumously awarded honorary titles and first-class merit citations, Central Military Commission announced Friday. A colonel, who led them and seriously injured, was conferred with honorary title. pic.twitter.com/Io9Wk3pXaU
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) February 19, 2021
Another state-controlled media Global Times reported details of PLA personnel including their names, titles awarded, and how the clashes were revealed and the role played by each of the four dead soldiers.
The Global Times also stated that the Central Military Commission acknowledged five frontier officers and soldiers posted in the Karakoram mountains, for “defending national independence and territorial honesty in the border dispute with India.
The report by global times detailed the awards as, “Chen Hongjun with Hero to defend the border, and awarded the first-class merit to Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan, and Wang Zhuoran, Qi Fabao, the regimental commander from the PLA Xinjiang Military Command, the title of Hero regimental commander for defending the border.”.
The state-controlled global times also reported quoted lines “When facing enemies that outnumbered us, none of us flinched. Amid their stone attacks, we drove them away…” from the diary of one of the late soldiers Chen Xiangrong, referring to the clashes.
China on Fri unveiled, for the 1st time, names and detailed stories of four martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the border confrontation with India in the Galwan Valley in Jun 2020, to commemorate their sacrifice for defending national sovereignty. https://t.co/3AzGA89Wo2 pic.twitter.com/nIWbaPtt6L
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 19, 2021
The Global times posted, speaking about why the details of the attack were unveiled with Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, ” In answer to previous misinformation that stated China prompted the incident or China has suffered more casualties than India, China has unveiled the details about the incident.”, The similar quote was attached to senior Coloney Ren Guoqiang, who is a Defence Ministry spokesperson, China.
Defense Ministry spokesperson, Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang said China unveiled details of the Galwan Valley clash to dismiss misunderstandings since India had hyped casualties, distorted truth & tried to mislead the world and defame Chinese military. https://t.co/ESXwc0zD5s
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 19, 2021
Talking to the director of the research department Qian Feng, at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, about why the details about the attack were revealed, “China revealed the details of the incident to answer previous disinformation that stated China suffered higher casualties than India or China prompted the event.”
The Global Times published. The disengagement process has begun between India and China currently, with the withdrawing troops from the shared border near Pangong Tso lake, as per the earlier between both countries. There are videos of China army troops dismantling tents, bunkers, and troops driving away from the northern and southern bank of the Pangong Tso lake, released by the Indian Army.
