| 2022 Yangste clash | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Sino-Indian border dispute | |||||||
 A map of the Yangste region in Tawang showing the alignment of the LAC (marked with violet) in the vicinity of the Chumi Gyatse Falls. The clash occurred near an Indian army outpost on its Bom 6 peak on the ridgeline southeast of Chumi Gyaltse. | |||||||
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 34 injured | 40 injured (per Indian media reports) | ||||||
The Yangste clash of 9 December 2022 occurred nocturnally between the troops of the Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) along the mutually contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Yangste region of Tawang in the border state of India's Arunachal Pradesh. The clashes ensued after the two armies confronted each other with nail-studded clubs and other melee weapons near positions on a 5,182 m (17,001 ft) high mounting peak on the ridgeline along the LAC, southeast of the revered Buddhist site of Chumi Gyatse Falls, resulting in several casualties on both sides. The border incident marked the most serious clash between the two armies along the undemarcated border, since the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020, which had led to the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of dead on the Chinese side.
India avowed that the incident was a Chinese enterprise, whose troops equipped with spiked clubs with protruding nails and other melee weapons nocturnally advanced upon its vantage military outpost manned by a small detachment of about 50 frontline troops on the Bom 6 peak with a force of over 300 soldiers with a view to capturing the high ground and alter the boundary in the area, thereby precipitating a brawl with the Indian troops, who were soon augmented by the arrival of reinforcements from the heights in the vicinity; and that in the ensuing clashes the Chinese were overwhelmed and beaten back. The Indian version of the chain of events was contested by the PLA, which imputed the transgression to the Indian troops at a time when its troops were performing customary patrol duty on its side of the border in the area.
Yangste, besides the larger Arunachal Pradesh region, had been the site of several such clashes in the period leading up to the latest incident. It had been recognised as one of the twelve contested border regions by the two countries in 1995. The border region is part of the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, which is an important centre of Tibetan Buddhism, and has been claimed by China as part of its larger claim on Arunachal Pradesh, which it avers to be a part of south Tibet.
Sino-Indian demarcation and geography edit
The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the present-day boundary between India and China. It embodies the demarcation that the troops of both the countries had held at contact points in the wake of the Sino-Indian War of 1962, and largely corresponds to the line that the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai had proffered to India's prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1959, much to latter's disdain. The LAC itself has never been delineated or demarcated, but to the east of Bhutan, it coincides with the McMahon Line, which was drawn by the British diplomat Henry McMahon on a map during the Simla Convention held between October 1913 and July 1914 in Shimla, whence the demarcation traces its genesis. The McMahon line extends from the Bhutanese-Indian-Chinese tri-junction and terminates at the Myanmarese-Indian-Chinese tri-junction, covering a total of 650 kilometres (400 mi). While India recognises the foregoing line as the legitimate demarcation, China disputes it.
Yangste, the region which was the site of the clash, lies around the LAC in the mountainous and thickly forested district of Tawang in India's border state of Arunachal Pradesh. As of December 2022, it is one of the 25 contested border regions between India and China, and is mutually recognised as such by the two countries.[1] The Chumi Gyatse Falls, at about 250 metres from the LAC, is the most prominent landmark in Yangste, and marks the juncture between the two principal ridgelines of the area; namely, the Bum La ridgeline to its southwest, and the Tulung La ridgeline to its southeast. The McMahon line at Yangste is coterminous with the two foregoing ridgelines. It underwent a material deviation in Yangste in 1986, when Indian troops, operating under the injunction of the then Indian army chief Krishnaswamy Sundarji, moved in Yangste and occupied the stretch to the north of the hitherto prevailing line around Chumi Gyatse Falls, which had bifurcated it into two parts such that it was parcelled out between the two countries. The McMahon line in this area was thus altered, and all of the Falls fell on the Indian side of the border.
Background and significance edit
The bilateral relations between India and China have for a long time been marred by considerable mistrust and suspicion, with the rancorous border dispute occupying the foreground. Whereas India has pushed for the delineation of the LAC, the Chinese have invariably demurred. Despite multiple rounds of negotiations, and an agreement in 2005 requisitioning the enunciation of parameters and principles for delineating and demarcating the LAC, the two sides have not made any tangible headway on the question.
While the McMahon line placed the border state of Arunachal Pradesh on the Indian side, China has staked formal claim to the entirety of the region, which it has esteemed as an extension of southern Tibet. The region of Tawang in particular has enticed Chinese interest for its politico-religious symbolism, besides its strategic significance.
The region is home to a significant ethnic Monpa population, which identifies with the Tibetan Buddhist culture, without actually considering themselves ethnic Tibetans; it hosts the Galden Namgey Lhatse Monastery, which is India's largest and Tibetan Buddhism's second largest monastery after Lhasa's Potala Palace. It also boasts of the distinction of being the birthplace of Tsangyang Gyatso, the 6th Dalai Lama. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, had also dwelled in Tawang, after the Chinese annexation of Tibet forced him to go into exile in 1959. India had extended its sovereignty over Tawang in February, 1951. China believes that its control over Tawang would stiffen its control over the Tibet Autonomous Region, besides providing it with the gateway to the strategic Brahmaputra valley. India dismisses China's claim over Arunachal Pradesh as "non-substantial", and over Tawang as "only ecclesial".
In mid-2020, India accused China of precipitating the 2020–2021 military standoff at several locations along the LAC in Ladakh, giving rise to a series of clashes between the two belligerents. The Galwan valley clash in June that same year, in particular, engendered the most serious border crisis since 1967, marking the first combat fatalities since 1975, with 20 dead on the Indian side and an unknown number of dead on the Chinese side. In January 2021, a face-off transpired between the two armies at Naku La in Sikkim that caused several non-fatal casualties on both sides.
An inquiry into the border incidents by The Telegraph found that in the period preceding to the clash at Yangste, border incidents between India and China had been becoming a frequent affair in Arunachal Pradesh, with several clashes occuring every month, sometimes lapsing into brutal hand-to-hand combat using clubs and other such melee weapons. It noted that military confrontations had become more frequent in Yangste in particular. However, the incidents were hushed up under injunctions from the ruling BJP government in India for political considerations in view of the parliamentary elections scheduled for 2024.[2]
Yangste was one of the twelve regions along the LAC that a Joint Working Committee in August, 1995 had recognised as disputed border area between India and China. India had established military control over the area in 1986 in the wake of the Sumdorong Chu standoff. The region is home to the Chumi Gyatse Falls. The falls are a series of 108 waterfalls on the border, colloquially described as the Holy Waterfalls. The falls are esteemed as sacred and revered by the ethnic Monpas, who identify its genesis to a showdown between a "Bon Lama" (monk) and Padmasambhava, who is considered by the practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism to be the second Buddha. Indian officials say that the Chinese essay to disseminate erroneous notions about the birthplace of Padmasambhava, tracing it to Tibet, as against his actual birthplace Odisha, to justify their claims to the grazing grounds in Yangste.
In the wake of the 2020 Galwan clash, Yangste became a region of renewed Sino-Indian focus and witnessed extensive military activities from the two armies. The Indians increased their military presence in the area, besides undertaking to augment its military infrastructure along the border, with a special focus on augmenting surveillance capabilities. In October 2021, Indian media reported that Yangste was the site of a brief altercation between the Chinese and Indian troops after a nigh company sized Chinese force was confronted by an Indian patrolling unit, leading to a physical brawl which was eventually defused by the intervention of local military commanders. The incident had coincided with the 13th rounds of talks at corps commander level which were to happen a few days later to find a resolution to the 2020–2021 military standoff.[1]
Chinese buildup edit
The clash edit
Official accounts edit
The news of a nocturnal clash having transpired between the troops of the Indian and Chinese armies on 9 December 2022 along the LAC in the Yangste region of Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang district was formally disclosed by Indian officials only in the late evening of 12 December 2022, over three days after the clash had actually occurred.[3] Indian security analysts point out that the Indian government deliberately withheld the news, with some imputing it to its apprehension that a border crisis could garner mainstream media attention, dwarfing interest in its electoral success in the recently concluded 2022 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election; while others imputed it to its predisposition to hush up reports of border clashes with China for fear of being construed politically weak or goaded by public into an overreaction.[3]
Indian officials operating under the injunctions of the government came out with a brief statement on the border incident, after an acquaintance of one of the injured soldiers had broken the news of the clash on Twitter, tagging Rahul Gandhi and other prominent opposition leaders, questioning the media's silence over it; the local revelation was followed soon afterwards by an article in The Tribune, which covered the story. Media queries a day before had met with a denial by the Indian government.[3] The statement stated that the Chinese troops had "contacted the LAC" in Tawang, prompting a "firm and resolute" response by the Indian troops, resulting in a face-off that caused a few "minor" casualties on both sides, adding that troop disengagement eventually defused the military situation, and that a flag meeting was held in its aftermath.[3]
While addressing the lawmakers in Parliament a day later on the issue, India's defence minister Rajnath Singh stated that the clash broke out after Chinese troops essayed to change the status quo of the disputed border in Yangste by encroaching on Indian territory, and that this had been confounded by the Indian troops.[4] Without disclosing all the details of the incident, Singh added that the physical brawl did not result in any fatal or grievous injury to any Indian soldier, and that his government had reached out to Chinese officials on the issue through diplomatic channels.[3][4][5]
The PLA's Western Theatre Command spokesman, Colonel Long Shaohua, gave a diverging account of the chain of events that had transpired, saying that its troops had been undertaking normal patrol duties on its side of the LAC when Indian troops crossing the border intercepted them. "Our response was professional, standardized and powerful, and we have stabilized the situation on the ground," he said, adding that troop disengagement has since ensued.[4][5]
Commenting on the incident at a daily press briefing, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated that "the present situation on the China-India border is peaceful and stable overall," and that the two sides "maintained unobstructed dialogue on the border issue through diplomatic and military channels", while enjoining the Indian government to "earnestly implement the important consensus reached by both leaders, strictly abide by the spirit of the agreements and accords signed by both sides, and together uphold the peace and tranquility of the China-India border region."[6]
Media accounts edit
According to Indian media accounts of the incident, a confrontation ensued when Indian troops positioned near their outpost on the Bom 6 mountain peak at an elevation of about 5,182 m (17,001 ft) on the Tulung La ridgeline (which ran to the southeast of the Chumi Gyatse Falls) were confronted by a hostile Chinese force of over a few hundreds, who had advanced upon its vantage outpost across the LAC with spiked clubs with protruding nails, monkey fists and taser guns in the early morning hours of 9 December 2022.[7][8] The Chinese were engaged by the Indians, who numbered about 50 at this juncture; the clash started off with stone pelting, before descending into a hand-to-hand struggle, with both sides employing melee weapons.[8] The clash developed with the arrival of the Indian reinforcements on the scene from neighbouring peaks, after about half an hour of fighting, in which the Indians were able to fend off the larger Chinese force.[8] The Indian troops, now augmented by reinforcements, overwhelmed the Chinese, forcing them to beat a hasty retreat.[8] The clash, which lasted a few hours, caused both sides casualties, with 34 injured on the Indian sides, and 40 on the Chinese.[9] The Print, citing military sources, reported that while the Indians did not possess taser guns, they had "everything and more than what the Chinese had" for fighting.[8]
Indian estimates of the strength of the attacking Chinese force vary from a minimum of 200 to a higher count of about 600 troops.[8][10] The border clash embroiled Indian troops from three discrete combat units; namely, the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, Jat Regiment and Sikh Light Infantry. One of these units was in the process of being relieved, and replaced by another, before the clash intervened, embroiling all three of them.[11]
Chinese media:
Reactions edit
Commenting on the incident, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price stated that his government was following the news of the clash, and that it denounced "unilateral attempts to advance territorial claims by incursions, military or civilian, across the border at the established Line of Actual Control", and that it would rather have the two countries utilize extant bilateral channels to discuss boundary-related disputes.[5]
The Pentagon press secretary, Patrick S. Ryder, stated that "We have seen the PRC (People’s Republic of China) continue to amass forces and build military infrastructure along the so-called LAC, but I would refer you to India in terms of their views," adding that "It does reflect though, and it’s important to point out the growing trend by the PRC to assert itself and to be provocative in areas directed towards US allies and our partners in the Indo Pacific. And we will continue to remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring the security of our partners. And we fully support India’s ongoing efforts to de-escalate this situation."[12]
The UN Secretary-General's spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated that UN was cognizant of the reports of the clash and sought a de-escalation of the situation at the border.[13]
In India, the opposition party, Indian National Congress, said that the defence minister Rajnath Singh made an incomplete statement on the issue before the parliament houses, and accused the ruling BJP of not being forthcoming with the truth. Its members staged a walkout from the upper house Rajya Sabha in what they described as being in response to being denied permission to solicit clarification on Singh's statement. They were accompanied by the parliamentary members from a laundry list of other opposition parties.[13]
References edit
- ^ a b "Why Chinese PLA troops target Yangtse, one of 25 contested areas". The Indian Express. 15 December 2022.
- ^ Wallen, Joe; Lateef, Samaan (14 December 2022). "Border clashes between India and China 'regularly covered up'". The Telegraph.
- ^ a b c d e Bedi, Rahul (13 December 2022). "Timing of Official Disclosure of India-China Clash at Tawang Raises Questions". The Wire.
- ^ a b c Schmall, Emily; Yasir, Sameer (13 December 2022). "Indian and Chinese Soldiers Again Trade Blows at Disputed Border". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c Saaliq, Shiekh (13 December 2022). "Indian, Chinese troops clash at border in fresh faceoff". The Washington Post. Associated Press.
- ^ Adlakha, Hemant (17 December 2022). "The Tawang Clash: The View From China". The Diplomat.
- ^ Baruah, Sanjib Kr (18 December 2022). "What is China's strategy behind the Tawang clash". The Week.
- ^ a b c d e f Philip, Snehesh Alex (12 December 2022). "Arunachal clash: Over 200 PLA troops came with spiked clubs, taser guns, Indian soldiers hit back". The Print.
- ^ Banerjee, Ajay (13 December 2022). "34 Indian, 40 Chinese soldiers injured; Tawang clash was building up since October". The Tribune.
- ^ Krishnan, Ananth (13 December 2022). "As India pushes China back on LAC, PLA's growing transgressions risk 'strategic miscalculation'". The Hindu.
- ^ Dhar, Aniruddha (13 December 2022). "Jat regiment, Indian Army's 2 other units took on China troops in Arunachal". The Hindustan Times.
{{cite news}}: Text "10 points" ignored (help) - ^ "'Encourage India, China to Utilise Existing Channels to Discuss Disputed Boundaries,' Says US". The Wire. Press Trust of India. 14 December 2022.
- ^ a b "India-China troops clash in Arunachal: 'PLA wanted to set up observation post on LAC'". The Times of India. 15 December 2022.