By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Nov. 5: The Chinese government on Friday named eleven bridges along the Tibet-Xinjiang highway after four Chinese soldiers who were reportedly killed during the clashes with Indian troops in Galwan valley at the Indo-Tibet border. The state-run Chinese media Global Times stated that the bridges are named after both the slain soldiers and their hometowns as a “way of commemorating” the soldiers as they “become the epitome of Chinese people’s ever-growing patriotic sentiment.”
The Chinese state media said that the bridges have been named Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan, Wang Zhuoran and Chen Hongjun and with their respective hometowns, with the emphasis on the role these soldiers played at the frontier.
Although China has claimed only four deaths, the Indian army believes that the Chinese army lost anywhere between 43 to 67 men. “The title of ‘Border-defending Hero’ was conferred posthumously to Battalion Commander Chen Hongjun, while Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran received first-class merits,” Chinese state media announced. The G129 highway connects the so called two autonomous regions of Tibet and Xinjiang (East Turkestan).
The Galwan incident has been a centerpiece for Chinese propaganda over the last few months. PLA commander Qi Fabao who was deployed at Galwan was one of the torchbearers in the Winter Games at Beijing and also a guest at the CPC meeting that marked Xi’s third term with over 2,000 party delegates last month. A video footage of the commander rushing towards Indian troops in Galwan valley ahead of the clash was shown ahead of leader Xi Jinping’s inaugural speech at the CPC meet.
The tension along the Indo-Tibet border reached its peak in June 2020 when the clashes resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of soldiers from the Chinese army at the Indo-Tibet border. China announced the number and names of casualties eight months later after much secrecy over the exact number of casualties. After three years, the Line of Actual Control remains sensitive as both sides continue to deploy troops there.
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India signed its death warrant when it signed the 1954 Trade agreement with communist China in which India accepted spurious Chinese claims over Tibet. Little did they know that this agreement “born in sin” as Jai Prakash Narayan described it, would haunt them as long as Tibet is under Chinese occupation! The Indian leaders of the time were pro-communists calling themselves socialists. Nehru was a gentleman and he took every word the Chinese leaders like Chau Enlai spouted from his mouth. He was rather gullible too and accepted all Chinese assurances in good faith. He knew nothing about the deceit and double talk that the Chinese communists indulged in. The most astounding blunder Pandit Nehru made was the believe that the Chinese will never invade India! Until the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet, India enjoyed “the best land frontier in the world, the lofty plateau of Northern Tibet …. this inhospitable table-land is the real barrier of India to the north” so wrote Sir Charles Bell. After 1919, Britain treated Tibet as an independent nation. The Eden Memorandum of 1943 made British position clear in rejecting Chinese Nationalists claim over Tibet. Changkaishek tried to get the British accept Chinese suzerainty over Tibet but Britain in the Eden Memorandum unambiguously stated that Tibet was de facto independent. In fact it went further to say that China did not even have a nominal role to play in Tibet! Despite such overwhelming prove of British stand on Tibet, it beggars belief, Nehru endorsed Chinese claims over Tibet and jeopardized the national security of his own country! Nehru, it seems was blindsided by his belief in being good friend of China at all costs without any consideration for the ramifications of Chinese occupation of Tibet. Nehru was even questioning the need for India to have an army, believing “no one threatened India and India threatened no one”!
The Chinese will not rest with the conquest of Tibet! It will incrementally salami slice Indian territory by hook or crook. A good example is the Galwan incident in which 20 Indian jawans were butchered by the Chinese murderers! Even though India claims more Chinese soldiers died than four as the CCP admitted, it is more of a jingoistic display than any substance to it. The reason is simple. Like Nehru, the Indians abided by the rules the two armies had agreed upon not to arm themselves to avoid clashes that could snow ball into a conflict but the Chinese had other ideas. Not being armed meant no guns but not medieval nail studded batons to bludgeon people to death! The Chinese had pre-planned the attack to kill Indian jawans and were fully armed with their nail studded medieval weapons when the Indian Jawans approached them. The Indians had only their bare hands! As the Chinese attacked, the Indians were taken by complete surprise and retreated towards the river. The Chinese attacked them mercilessly by their deadly baton as well as pushing them into the chilly waters! The Chinese had more man power and being fully armed, killed twenty unsuspecting Jawans but the Indians were able to kill only four since they were not armed and having only their bare hands to fight with! This is how the Chinese communists never adhere to rules but always misinterpret any treaty or agreement to do what they like. During this debacle, China occupied a sizable territory. The Indian PM made a rather tawdry statement saying, “the territory didn’t belong to India”. Whether it was no man’s land or Indian land is hard to say but the Chinese occupied territory during the deadly scuffle. That is why, the Chinese soldier is hailed as a hero by having him included as a torch bearer during the Beijing Winter Olympics and invited for the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communists!
Sadly, there are still Indian China “experts” who continue to pander to China and never take cognizance of the treachery and devious nature of the Chinese and continue the same pusillanimous attitude towards communist China. India’s China policies are made by man like Vijay Gokhale who is a mandarin speaker and who has been influenced by Chinese culture and way of life after serving in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Beijing. He is a China apologist. People like him are in the same mould who want the infamous Chini-Hindi bonhomie of the 1950-60s without realizing the Chinese have long discarded such romance and are determined to keep India boxed in South Asia. It’s also people like him who are preventing India from coming out of its old cocoon of so called non-alignment policy to the detriment of India’s national interest. The Quad has been silent in recent times and I believe it’s India who is dragging its feet in fear of Chinese coercion not to gang up against it. All the while the Chinese are threatening India from the north from occupied Tibet and from the south through the Indian Ocean!