India ‘firing first’ destroys tranquility on border

China on Tuesday slammed Indian troops for firing first in the Monday border clash and illegally crossing the Line of Actual Control (LAC) again, which it said had destroyed tranquility on the China-India border since 1975, demanding India punish personnel who fired the provocative shot and avoid similar incidents happening again.

The Indian army’s firing of shots, the first time it has happened in more than four decades in a border region between China and India, is an extremely dangerous act and set a vile precedent that broke the traditional tacit understanding reached by both sides of not using firearms, Chinese observers said, noting that the risk of accidentally sparking another conflict is getting higher.

In a rare early morning statement, a spokesperson of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Western Theater Command said the Indian troops crossed the LAC at the western section of the ChinaIndia border into the Shenpao mountain region near the southern bank of Pangong Tso Lake.

During its operation, the Indian army outrageously fired warning shots at Chinese border defense patrol personnel who were attempting to negotiate, which is a serious military provocation and very vile in nature, and the Chinese border defense troops were forced to take countermeasures to stabilize the situation, Zhang Shuili, the spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“It was the Indian side that fired

first, and it marked the first time that the tranquility on the China-India border has been broken by gunfire since 1975,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press conference on Tuesday.

India broke the tacit understanding of not using firearms over the past four decades, and set a vile precedent that will leave great danger for the situation to develop, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University in Beijing, said on Tuesday.

Both sides had exercised great restraint in using firearms, and China upholds the principle of not firing the first shot, Qian said.

“India maybe only fired warning shots into the sky this time, but now you cannot rule out the possibility of its troops shooting at people next time,” Qian said.

Bargaining chips?

The latest Indian provocation came only days after the defense ministers of China and India met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in Moscow, Russia on Friday.

India’s move seriously violated the agreements reached by both sides, stirred up tensions in the region, and could easily cause misunderstandings and misjudgments, said Zhang.

Qian said that Monday’s incident exposed India’s sense of urgency in the negotiations. India is suffering from a rampaging COVID-19 epidemic at home and more engagements with Pakistan on their border. As it increases troop deployments to Ladakh, it is facing enormous pressure in logistical support and resource allocation as winter approaches.

Chinese experts said that India’s mentality of promoting talks with pressure has not changed, and the latest event showed the trend of pushing for talks with force. Some people in India wishfully think the situation is under control, but in the end, they could be lifting rocks but only dropping them on their own feet.

Gaining footholds on some of the highlands could give the Indian troops some short-term tactical advantages, but these will mean nothing if India cannot continue its logistical support for winter, or if India goes too far and the PLA becomes determined to solve the problem by force, as these regions can be easily won back if PLA troops obtain permission to use firearms, a PLA veteran who served in Northwest China’s Gobi desert said on the condition of anonymity.