The Indian Panorama

Tag: Galwan Valley

  • China’s lies, damned lies and statistics

    China’s lies, damned lies and statistics

    • By Prabhu Dayal

      China deliberately concealed the extent of the outbreak of the Covid-19 outbreak during the early days

    • China also kept mum about its casualties after the clash with Indian Army in Galwan Valley
    • Now, after eight months have elapsed since the clashes, China has grudgingly acknowledged casualties

    Abraham Lincoln had famously said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” The Chinese leadership does not seem to realize this and continues to use false figures and statistics to bolster its case. Thus, it weaves one web of lies after another, totally oblivious of its own eroding credibility. For example, CNN reported in December that documents from Wuhan accessed by it reveal how China deliberately concealed the extent of the outbreak of the Covid-19 outbreak during the early days by playing down the actual figures. The ‘Wuhan Files’, as they have come to be called show China’s complete lack of transparency about its poor handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the early days. The health authorities in the province of Hubei, where the virus was first detected listed a total of 5,918 cases on February 10 last year—more than double the number that was made public. False statistics were used by the Chinese authorities to hide their incompetence.

    Experts and persons in positions of authority have continued to accuse Beijing of lying and being opaque about information pertaining to the virus. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said that Beijing has to step up and make sure it is being transparent about the deadly virus. In an interview with MSNBC, Blinken said that the Chinese government’s failure’ in sharing and providing pertinent information regarding the deadly virus is something “we must address”. He added: “There is no doubt that, especially when COVID-19 first hit but even today, China is falling far short of the mark when it comes to providing the information necessary to the international community, making sure that experts have access to China. All of that – that lack of transparency, that lack of being forthcoming, is a profound problem and it’s one that continues.”

    Not surprisingly, such jiggery-pokery also remains a hallmark of the Chinese leadership’s approach to its casualties in the savage June 15 Galwan Valley clashes. Shortly after the clashes, India had confirmed the loss of 20 soldiers. Moreover, these slain soldiers were honored for their bravery with their names installed in memorials. In sharp contrast, China kept mum about its casualties, although not just Indian but international sources too reported that the figure of such casualties was higher than that for India. For example, the Russian news agency TASS reported recently that China suffered 45 casualties during the clash.

    Simply put, Xi Jinping and his henchmen are again lying through their teeth, perhaps oblivious to the act that others can see through their lies and deception. Why are they acknowledging only four casualties when it is widely believed that the figure was much higher? Is it because they want to continue propagating their theory of China’s superiority over India? Now, after eight months have elapsed since the clashes, China has grudgingly acknowledged casualties and named four of its soldiers who were killed–a far smaller number than what is widely believed. Asked why this was being done eight months after the clash, the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunying said that “The report has been revealed to give the truth to the public because the truth is long-awaited and is necessary for the people to know the true story.” However, in view of the fact that international sources have reported much, much higher casualty figures, the figures now disclosed by the Chinese authorities only highlight their unflinching belief in their own ability to pull the wool over the eyes of not just their own people but everyone else’s too.

    After acknowledging the above casualties, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman went on to say: ” “India is an important neighbor of China and restoring a healthy, stable relationship is the aspiration and also in the interest of the two peoples. I hope the Indian side will work with us towards achieving this shared goal.” Given China’s track record, will anyone believe that there is even an iota of sincerity in these remarks? Will anyone be taken in by China’s lies, damned lies or it’s falsified statistics?

    (The author is a former diplomat)

    (Courtesy OPOYI)

  • 5 Chinese soldiers were killed in Galwan Valley clash, acknowledges China

    5 Chinese soldiers were killed in Galwan Valley clash, acknowledges China

    Beijing (TIP): Five Chinese military officers and soldiers were killed in the fierce clash with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officially acknowledged for the first time on Friday, February 19. Five Chinese frontier officers and soldiers stationed in the Karakoram Mountains have been recognised by the Central Military Commission of China (CMC) for their sacrifice in the border confrontation with India, which occurred in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military, reported on Friday.

    Those killed included Qi Fabao, the regimental commander from the PLA Xinjiang Military Command, state-run Global Times quoted PLA Daily report as saying.

    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.

    Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the fierce hand-to-hand combat on June 15 in Galwan Valley, an incident that marked the most serious military conflicts between the two sides in decades.

    The CMC, the overall high command of the PLA headed by President Xi Jinping, has awarded Qi Fabao, the regimental commander from the PLA Xinjiang Military Command, the title of ‘Hero regimental commander for defending the border’, Chen Hongjun with ‘Hero to defend the border’, and awarded first-class merit to Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran.

    This is the first time China has acknowledged casualties and details of these officers and soldiers’ sacrifice, four of whom died when dealing with the Indian military’s “illegal trespassing” of the Galwan Valley Line of Actual Control (LAC), the report said.

    While India has announced the casualties immediately after the incident, China did not officially acknowledge the casualties until Friday.

    The Russian official news agency TASS reported on February 10 that 45 Chinese servicemen were killed in the Galwan Valley clash.

    According to an American intelligence report last year, the number of casualties on the Chinese side was 35.

    Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that China unveiled the details of the incident to refute previous “disinformation” that stated China suffered greater casualties than India or China incited the incident.

    Both countries had rushed a large number of battle tanks, armoured vehicles and heavy equipment to the treacherous and high-altitude areas of eastern Ladakh region after tension escalated following a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley in June last.

    The admission of the casualties by the PLA coincides with the disengagement of troops by both sides at the North and South banks of the Pangong Lake, the most contentious part of the standoff which began in May last year.

    (Source: PTI)

  • The Biden-Kamala era

    India needs to sidestep the eddies

    The most-used words in Joe Biden’s inaugural speech were ‘America, American and Americans’ and ‘nation, people and democracy’. The message to heal a badly split America, its apogee reached in the mob assault on the Capitol barely a fortnight back, is understandably Biden’s top-most priority. But apart from some intense navel-gazing, Biden also declared that ‘America is back’. Hopefully, this will not be an America that under Trump was nickel-and-diming even close allies. India was robbed of zero-duty access to over Rs 40,000 crore worth of exports to the US and PM Modi mocked for high import duty on Harley Davidson motorcycles. Though India has been a bipartisan success story so far, this is more because the US still has to make further ingress into its markets and defense sectors. But like all of Washington’s other partners, India will be hoping the Biden-Kamala team will usher in predictability and sensitivity to the needs of others. Unlike in the Obama administration, the Left has a firm hook into the White House this time. Several of Biden’s appointees are instinctively ranged against ill-liberalist and majoritarian tendencies. Trump’s free pass to the Modi government on the CAA, lynchings and the communal riots was facilitated due to New Delhi’s enthusiastic over-identification with Washington’s China-baiting in the Indo-Pacific. With Kamala Harris as Vice-President, human rights issues will not get overlooked. The farmers’ agitation will be the latest on the list. The Modi government has to instead get the US more interested in non-military areas of cooperation that have been marked by friction and apathy. The shifting of supply chains away from China ought to start with pharmaceuticals and move on to other areas of high dependency. In the military field, India and the US must move to higher-level strategic discussions that lead to a division of labor in the Indian Ocean. India will also need elbow room in its foreign choices — to source oil from Iran and Venezuela and defense platforms from Russia. The Modi government will need to sidestep eddies to carve out a more meaningful relationship with the new US administration in the post-Covid, post-Galwan Valley world.

    (Tribune, India)