(AFP): China’s military today (Friday) has confirmed that four of its soldiers were killed in last year’s Galwan Valley clash in eastern Ladakh with the Indian Army, the first time Beijing has publicly conceded its side suffered casualties.
According to China’s Defence Ministry, the Chinese soldiers “sacrificed themselves” during the June confrontation in the contested Galwan Valley border area with an unnamed “foreign military”, without mentioning India directly.
The ministry further informed that the four killed were named official state martyrs and awarded other posthumous honours. It said the title of “border-defending hero” was conferred on Battalion Commander Chen Hongjun, while Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan, and Wang Zhuoran received first-class merit awards.
Qi Fabao, a regimental commander from the PLA Xinjiang Military Command who was wounded in the clash, was awarded the title of “Hero regimental commander for defending the border”.
It also blamed the battle in June on “foreign troops blatantly violating the consensus reached with us and crossing the line to set up tents”.
It said Chinese troops were able to drive their adversaries away in a “significant victory,” and that the other side “ran away with their heads in their hands, abandoning numerous border-crossing and injured or dead personnel”.
India and China fought a border war in 1962 and have long accused each other of seeking to cross their frontier in India’s Ladakh region. In mid-June, 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a brutal, high-altitude border battle in the Galwan valley.
China was believed to have also suffered casualties but did not provide any details, saying it did not want to further inflame tensions.
