China admits casualties in hand-to-hand mountain skirmish

China’s military says four of its soldiers were killed in a border clash with Indian forces last year – the first time Beijing has publicly conceded that it suffered casualties in the deadliest incident between the Asian giants in nearly 45 years.

The announcement, coming more than six months after the bloody hand-to-hand fighting, should help global audiences ``understand the truth and the right and wrong of the incident’’, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

Immediately after the June 2020 clash atop a high ridge in the Ladakh region’s Galwan Valley, India said it had lost 20 of its soldiers in a battle that saw fists, clubs, stones and other improvised weapons used to avoid a firefight.

China was believed to have also suffered casualties but did not provide any details, saying it didn’t want to further inflame tensions.

The announcement that it did lose soldiers comes as the two sides wrap up a phased pullback from one of their original positions, following multiple rounds of negotiations.

Indian and Chinese troops had completed their disengagement from the southern and northern banks of Pangong Lake, an Indian army officer said on condition of anonymity. The withdrawal began on February 10.

The tense standoff in the Karakoram mountains began in early May, when Indian and Chinese soldiers ignored each other’s repeated verbal warnings, triggering a shouting match, stone-throwing and fistfights on the northern bank of Pangong Lake.

By June, frictions had spread north to Depsang and the Galwan Valley, where India has built an all-weather military road along the disputed frontier. Both countries stationed tens of thousands of soldiers backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets along the de facto border called the Line of Actual Control.

Troops withdrew from the Galwan Valley shortly after the June clashes, and have now done so from Pangong Lake. They remain in a standoff in Depsang and at least two other places, Gogra and Hot Springs.

The two sides fought a border war in 1962 that spilled into Ladakh and ended in an uneasy truce. Since then, troops have guarded the undefined border while occasionally brawling. The two countries have agreed not to attack each other with firearms.