Chinese state media Global Times, the English language paper of Communist Party of China, on Monday took to Twitter to claim that should China reveal the actual figure of Chinese soldiers who died in the violent faceoff in Galwan Valley, Ladakh last week, Indian government would come under pressure.
In a series of tweets, Global Times claimed that China has not released ‘casualties’ number is because China also wants to avoid escalation. “If China releases the number which is less than 20, the Indian govt would again come under pressure,” China said citing an ‘observer’.
Here again it is important to note that China is using the ambiguous term ‘casualties’ which could mean dead and/or injured soldiers. However, in normal parlance, casualties is used to refer to soldiers who are killed in action. China has been extremely tightlipped about the casualties, including number of injured soldiers.
In fact, so much that China, through unofficial channels, had tried to spread propaganda that no Chinese soldiers lost their lives while only 5 were injured.
The Indian side had reported 20 soldiers martyred and more injured.
This ‘admittance’ of Chinese side that they have casualties (even if they use the ambiguous term), however, is not new. Last week, China had inadvertently admitted to having suffered major casualties.
An 18th June 2020 article in the Chinese state media had mentioned how in the biggest military confrontation between India and China in four decades led to ‘casualties on both sides’. Evidently, since it is one of the biggest confrontation by China’s own admission, the Chinese casualties (death and injury) being less than 20 is kind of hard to believe.
On the plus side, Chinese state media has finally officially reconfirmed that there have been casualties (death and injury to soldiers) for PLA soldiers too.
