Galwan clash could have been planned by China, US Congress panel report says

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission says some evidence suggested the Chinese govt had planned the incident, potentially including the possibility of fatalities.

File image of a Chinese flag and an effigy of President Xi Jinping being burnt during a protest against the Galwan Valley clash, in Kolkata | Representational image | ANI

New Delhi: China, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), could have “planned” the Galwan clash in June with India, potentially including the possibility for fatalities, a United States Congress commission has said in its latest report, highlighting the strong-arm tactics of China.

The report, published Tuesday, said China has ramped up its “multi-year coercion campaign” against its neighbours, provoking military or paramilitary standoffs with countries — from Japan to India and much of Southeast Asia.

Noting that 2020 saw Sino-Indian relations suffering their “worst year in decades”, the report submitted to the Congress by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said the June clash was the first confrontation since 1975 that resulted in loss of lives on either side.

It said the CCP employs its armed forces as a coercive tool during peacetime, carrying out large-scale intimidation exercises around Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

“This year, it provoked the first deadly clash on the China-India border in nearly half a century,” it said.

As many as 20 Indian soldiers had died in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh following a face-off between Indian and Chinese troops.

The top panel, which focuses on China affairs, said the clash followed a series of standoffs beginning in early May along multiple sectors of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“Some evidence suggested the Chinese government had planned the incident, potentially including the possibility for fatalities. For instance, several weeks prior to the clash Defense Minister Wei made his statement encouraging Beijing to ‘use fighting to promote stability’”, the report stated.

India, China seen major altercations since Xi came to power

The report also noted that just over two weeks before the incident, “in another potential indication of Chinese leaders signaling their intent to escalate tensions”, an editorial in China’s state-owned tabloid Global Times warned that India would suffer a “devastating blow” to its trade and economic ties with China if it got “involved in the US-China rivalry”.

It said that China and India have engaged in multiple physical clashes along their border for decades, but “since General Secretary Xi assumed power in 2012, the two countries have seen five major altercations”.

The report further said that while the exact motivations behind the Chinese government’s provocative behaviour on the LAC this year remain unclear, the proximate cause of the clash appeared to be India’s construction of a strategic access road to support troops stationed along the LAC.

“China has also built extensive infrastructure along the LAC in recent years. In the aftermath of the clash, Beijing asserted sovereignty over the entire Galwan Valley, a new claim and significant change to the territorial status quo,” it said.

The report added that while the Chinese and Indian foreign ministers met in Moscow in September on the sidelines of the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit and pledged to defuse tensions, China subsequently conducted war games in Tibet.

Chinese actions in Taiwan, pressure on Australia, Canada

Talking about the Chinese move of bringing 7.5 million residents of Hong Kong under full and direct authoritarian rule with the implementation of a draconian national security law passed in Beijing, the top Congress panel said “this action was one of many in 2020” that demonstrated the Chinese government’s indifference to its reputation abroad.

The other Chinese actions mentioned in the report were border skirmishes with India, military exercises to intimidate Taiwan, and pressure on Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, among others.

It said that while earlier China always spoke about maintaining strategic relations with India and Japan, since General Secretary Xi Jinping’s ascent to power, China has steadily increased military pressure on both countries, leading to a significant deterioration in Sino-Japanese and Sino-Indian ties.