Hours after publicly acknowledging casualties of PLA soldiers during the fierce hand-to-hand battle with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year, China on Friday released an alleged video of the border skirmish. The video—clearly another propaganda attempt—was released by the Chinese state media ahead of the military commanders meeting on Saturday to de-escalate tensions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Earlier in the day, nearly eight months after the biggest military confrontation between the two neighbours in over five decades, the Chinese PLA had admitted that four of their soldiers had killed in the brawl.
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.
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, according to the Chinese military. India has said that 20 of its soldiers were killed in the conflict.
“An on-site video reveals in detail the four PLA martyrs and other brave Chinese soldiers at the scene of the Galwan Valley border clash with India in June 2020,” a post on Twitter by the Global Times said.
Asked whether the details of the Galwan incident revealed by China on Friday will impact Saturday's 10th round of Commanders-level talks to discuss further disengagement of troops, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said these are two separate issues.
"We all know that conflict broke out in Galwan in June last year and responsibility does not rest with Chinese side," Hua said.
She added that through diplomatic and military channels, the two sides are in communications in completing the disengagement smoothly. "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.
The Galwan incident was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while over 300 Chinese army personnel were killed in the confrontation.
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.
With inputs from PTI