[Now comes, an unambiguous warning!
Plain and simple.
<<*India will be more humiliated than after the 1962 border conflict with China if it cannot control anti-China sentiment at home and has a new military conflict with its biggest neighbor, analysts said on Sunday* [emphasis added].
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday that his government has given the armed forces full freedom to take any necessary action, and he also appeared to downplay the clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers and injured more than 70 on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control in the Galwan Valley on Monday.
*"Nobody has intruded into our border, neither is anybody there now, nor have our posts been captured," Modi said, referring to Ladakh's Galwan Valley, Reuters reported* [emphasis added].
Chinese observers said Modi is trying to respond to the nationalists and hardliners with tough talk, but he understands his country cannot have further conflict with China so he is also making an effort to cool tensions
...
Indian economist Swaminathan Aiyar said in a Saturday report by Indian media outlet the Economic Times that the gap between China and India militarily and economically is five times bigger than it was in 1962. Attempting military adventures in that area is asking to be thrashed again and humiliated on a scale five times bigger than in 1962.
...
In a potential self-defense counterattack, China will secure its own territory and not likely claim Indian territory after emerging victorious, but the battle will deeply hurt India so much that global position and economy would go backwards to decades ago, Chinese analysts said.>>
(Excerpted from sl. no. I. below.)
Just to recall how this same publication, on May 19 2014, had greeted Modi's electoral victory, and defended his politics, on the way to becoming the Indian Prime Minister, for the first time:
"The opposition to the BJP hold this view [that Modi will alienate minorities and fuel confrontation as an "autocrat" after he assumes the office] out of the need for partisan competition, while as for Western critics, their attack on Modi is out of ideological concerns, because *Modi's governance style and philosophy are very close to Chinese practices* [emphasis added]."
(Ref.: <
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/861112.shtml>)
The 'Global Times' is an affiliate of the 'People's Daily' - the official organ of the Communist Party of China.
The gloves are now off.
As is further underlined by the report at sl. no. II. below.
One'll, of course, stridently hope that a just, durable and peaceful settlement would nevertheless be arrived at.]
I/II.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1192345.shtml?fbclid=IwAR06ey0tY_VD1cA3VK9-SPxOYUSnZ2wL5U7_h55-IyTADgsaJLW1Jcx_G9kIndia knows ‘it can’t have a war with China’
By Yang Sheng and Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/21 21:48:40
New Delhi would be ‘more humiliated than 1962’ if it launches a new conflict
Truck howitzers attached to a brigade under the PLA Xizang Military Command fire a salvo of shells at mock targets during a coordinated exercise recently.Photo:China Military
After the border clash in the Galwan Valley, nationalism and hostility against China within India are rising sharply, while Chinese analysts and some reasonable voices inside India warned that New Delhi should cool down the nationalism at home.
India will be more humiliated than after the 1962 border conflict with China if it cannot control anti-China sentiment at home and has a new military conflict with its biggest neighbor, analysts said on Sunday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday that his government has given the armed forces full freedom to take any necessary action, and he also appeared to downplay the clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers and injured more than 70 on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control in the Galwan Valley on Monday.
"Nobody has intruded into our border, neither is anybody there now, nor have our posts been captured," Modi said, referring to Ladakh's Galwan Valley, Reuters reported.
Chinese observers said Modi is trying to respond to the nationalists and hardliners with tough talk, but he understands his country cannot have further conflict with China so he is also making an effort to cool tensions.
Lin Minwang, a professor at Fudan University's Center for South Asian Studies in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Sunday that Modi's remarks will be very helpful to ease the tensions, because as the prime minister of India, he has removed the moral basis for hardliners to further accuse China.
Beijing-based military expert Wei Dongxu told the Global Times on Sunday that Modi's assertion that Indian forces can take all necessary steps is a show of strength for domestic audiences to appease the Indian masses and boost the Indian troops' morale.
Modi is playing with words in order to avoid an escalation as he does not want to really unleash his army by encouraging them to actively start another clash. China's capability not only in terms of the military, but also overall and international influence, is superior to India's, Wei said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: Xinhua
"It is normal to see heated nationalism in India, but we don't need to worry whether nationalism will hijack the policymaking of India to further provoke China. When India is in conflict with Pakistan or other neighbors, nationalism might drive New Delhi to take actual operations, but when it comes to China, it is a different story," Lin said.
Indian government and military leaders understand how powerful China is, while Indian nationalists are ignorant and arrogant, Lin said. "So they might say some harsh words, but they dare not take the first shot against us."
"If 20 were martyred on our [Indian] side, then there would have been at least double the casualties on their [China] side," V.K.Singh, India's minister for roads and transport, told TV News24 in an interview broadcast late on Saturday.
Chinese experts said the official wants to placate the nationalists by making speculations to satisfy the hardliners. They do not want to put more pressure on the government to further provoke China, and the reason why China did not release the number is that China also wants to avoid an escalation, because if China's casualties number less than 20, the Indian government would again come under pressure.
For now, India should focus on its own epidemic and economic problems, Wei said, noting that having frictions with neighbors will do India no good, as the accumulation of negative factors will damage India even more.
China is being very restrained in its efforts to avoid conflict, but this does not mean China is afraid of provocation or aggression from any country, especially India. Chinese military observers said that an escalated, large-scale military conflict involving main Chinese troops, if that were to happen, would mean a rout just like the war in 1962, with very disproportionate casualty figures unfavorable to India.
Because the Chinese military has an informationized combat system that integrates all troops, weapons and equipment together, while also having very disciplined troops and officers with advanced tactical awareness, they noted.
China's priority for using military force is never in the West against India but in the East, such as reunification with Taiwan, so China's deployment in the border region is less than the Indian side, Lin said.
However, if conflict breaks out, China's overwhelming advantages on transportation and military industry will help the People's Liberation Army to acquire an absolute strategic and tactical advantage against the India on the frontline.
"This is why India hasn't dared to launch a full attack against the PLA in decades but keeps creating low-level tensions occasionally," he noted.
Indian forces use weapons bought from different countries which many not coordinate with each other well, not to mention their undisciplined troops who can blow up their own submarine in a dockyard and shoot down a friendly helicopter, observers noted.
Rational voices within India are also calling Modi not to repeat former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's mistakes on the China front.
Indian economist Swaminathan Aiyar said in a Saturday report by Indian media outlet the Economic Times that the gap between China and India militarily and economically is five times bigger than it was in 1962. Attempting military adventures in that area is asking to be thrashed again and humiliated on a scale five times bigger than in 1962.
In a potential self-defense counterattack, China will secure its own territory and not likely claim Indian territory after emerging victorious, but the battle will deeply hurt India so much that global position and economy would go backwards to decades ago, Chinese analysts said.
II.
https://www.news18.com/news/india/pla-death-squads-hunted-down-indian-troops-in-galwan-in-savage-execution-spree-say-survivors-2673347.htmlPLA Death Squads Hunted Down Indian Troops in Galwan in Savage Execution Spree, Say Survivors
This satellite photo provided by Planet Labs shows the Galwan Valley area in the Ladakh region near the Line of Actual Control between India and China on June 16, 2020. (Planet Labs via AP)
This satellite photo provided by Planet Labs shows the Galwan Valley area in the Ladakh region near the Line of Actual Control between India and China on June 16, 2020. (Planet Labs via AP)
The killings mark the Indian Army’s worst losses since the 1999 Kargil war, and mark the most intense fighting between India and China since 1967.
Praveen Swami
NEW DELHI
Last Updated: June 17, 2020, 11:03 AM IST
Furious hand-to-hand fighting raged across the Galwan river valley for over eight hours on Monday night, as People’s Liberation Army assault teams armed with iron rods as well as batons wrapped in barbed wire hunted down and slaughtered troops of the 16 Bihar Regiment, a senior government official familiar with the debriefing of survivors at hospitals in Leh has told News18.
The savage combat, with few parallels in the history of modern armies, is confirmed to have claimed the lives of at least 23 Indian soldiers, including 16 Bihar’s commanding officer, Colonel Santosh Babu, many because of protracted exposure to sub-zero temperatures the Indian Army said late on Tuesday.
“Even unarmed men who fled into the hillsides were hunted down and killed,” one officer said. “The dead include men who jumped into the Galwan river in a desperate effort to escape.”
Government sources say at least another two dozen soldiers are battling life-threatening injuries, and over 110 have needed treatment. “The toll will likely go up,” a military officer with knowledge of the issue said.
The fighting at Galwan, News18 had first reported on Tuesday, began after troops under Colonel Babu’s command dismantled a Chinese tent sent up near a position code-named Patrol Point 14, close to the mouth of the Galwan river. The tent had been dismantled following a meeting between Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, who commands the Leh-based XIV Corps, and Major-General Lin Liu, the head of the Xinjiang military district
Inside two days of the disengagement agreed to at the two Generals’ meeting in Chushul, though, the PLA set up a fresh tent at Patrol Point 14, inside territory claimed by India. Colonel Babu’s unit, government sources said, was ordered to ensure the tent was removed.
For reasons that remain unclear, the PLA refused to vacate Point 14 — reneging on the June 6 agreement — leading to a melee in which the Chinese tent was burned down, the sources said. In ongoing dialogue with division-level military commanders of the two armies in Galwan, a bid to bring about de-escalation, the PLA has alleged troops of the 16 Bihar were responsible for the incident.
The PLA, government sources have said, alleges Colonel Babu’s troops crossed a buffer zone separating the two sides, violating border-management protocols which mandates the use of white flags and banners to signal to the other side that it must turn back from the territory it is on.
The burning of the tent, the sources said, was followed by stone-pelting on Sunday, and then a massive Monday night attack on the 16 Bihar’s unprepared troops. Large rocks were also thrown towards the Indian positions by Chinese troops stationed on the high ridge above Point 14, one source said. Though some fought back using the improvised weapons carried by the PLA, most had no means of defence.
Large numbers of dead bodies, Indian military officials say, were handed over by the PLA on Monday morning — possibly men dragged away in the course of hand-to-hand fighting, and then killed.
The killings mark the Indian Army’s worst losses since the 1999 Kargil war, and mark the most intense fighting between India and China since 1967, when 88 Indian soldiers and perhaps as many as 340 PLA troops were killed in the course of intense skirmishes near the Nathu La and Cho La passes, the gateways to the strategically-vital Chumbi valley.
Beijing has issued no official statement on the numbers of casualties the PLA suffered in in the fighting, but the Indian Army claims it has intercepted military communication suggesting over 40 PLA soldiers may also have been killed or injured.
Earlier, on May 5, Indian and Chinese troops, as well as border guards, had engaged in similar, brutal fighting near the Pangong Lake, south of the Galwan valley. The commanding officer of the 11 Mahar Regiment, Colonel Vijay Rana, is still being treated for life-threatening wounds sustaining during the fighting, army sources say.
“There are obviously questions the public will want answers to,” a senior government official told News18, “including why the troops under attack at Galwan could not be supported, and why casualties could not be evacuated. The government will conduct a full investigation of these issues.”
No explanation has been offered for why the PLA pitched a tent at Point 14 after agreeing to a withdrawal. In addition to a drawdown at Point 14, the June 6 agreement had mandated an end to a standoff unfolding at another location code-named Point 15, and a withdrawal of troops and armoured personnel carriers stationed at the third location, Point 17.
Experts believe the crisis unfolding along the LAC is driven by China’s concerns that India’s development of logistical infrastructure could lead it to occupy contested territories it has until now only been able to patrol.
In maps published in 1962, after the end of the China-India war that year, the PLA asserted it had established control of the entire Galwan valley. Lightly-armed Indian troops of the 5 Jat Regiment, whose supply lines had been choked for months, held out against an entire PLA battalion at one key post in Galwan, losing 32 of the 68 troops stationed there before running out of ammunition.
Following the war, though, the PLA pulled back from its 1962 line, allowing Indian troops to resume patrolling ground dozens of kilometres to the east of the 1962 line, reaching the positions that India claims to be the LAC.
In the 1980s, China launched major border-works programmes which led several areas claimed by India to lie on its side of the LAC — like the Finger 8 ridge in Pangong — to be physically held by the PLA.