Chinese and Indian Soldiers Clash on Disputed Eastern Sino-Indian Borders
China and India have a number of border disputes and went to war in 1962 over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Photo: AFP/ FILE
On Dec. 9, Chinese and Indian soldiers clashed on the eastern Sino-Indian border around the disputed region of Arunachal Pradesh/ Southern Tibet, where most of the 1962 Sino-Indian War took place. This clash is the first since June 2020 at Galwan Valley, which was the harshest in the last 40 years.
According to Indian officials familiar with the event, Chinese soldiers first approached the line of actual control, leading the Indian troops to respond “in a firm and resolute manner.” This led to minor injuries on both sides but no one was killed. Three units of Indian armies and at least 600 Chinese soldiers were present during the skirmishes. Subsequently, both sides soon disengaged, and a commander-level flag meeting between the two countries took place to “restore peace and tranquility”.
The skirmishes happened just two weeks after the joint military exercise carried out by the Indian and the US army, which Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry, condemned as a violation of the principles of the Sino-Indian agreements established in 1993 and 1996. This harms mutual trust between China and India, a sentiment which China has expressed concerns to India, stressed Zhao. In response, Elizabeth Jones, the US Charge d’Affaires in India, said the joint military exercises were “none of China’s business.”
Zhao Lijian responding to an Indian journalist on the joint military exercise carried out near Arunachal Pradesh/ Southern Tibet by the US and Indian army. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China
Nonetheless, contrary to the skirmish in June 2020, this conflict was neither as fierce nor as publicized. Up to now, neither the Chinese Foreign Ministry nor the Chinese embassies in India responded to the event, and the Indian Ministry of Defense refused the request to give a comment on the skirmishes.
Hu Xijin, a Chinese journalist who once served as the party secretary and editor-in-chief of the Global Times, analyzed that both Chinese and Indian governments do not hope to intensify the conflicts, given their silence regarding the skirmishes. Hu claimed that India has understood China’s firm stance on the border issue and worried that India would be exploited as a strategic weapon in containing China. According to Hu, the attitude of the Indian government is ambiguous, referring to only “relevant officials,” since if both China and India defined the skirmishes as “cross-fire,” this would be severe. Still, the finale of the skirmishes is not certain yet and ultimately depends on the formal responses by the Chinese and Indian governments in the future, said Hu.