Forced To Disengage, China Releases Propaganda Video With Visuals of Galwan Valley Clash

Days after Lt Gen YK Joshi, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Army’s Northern Command, said India has not ceded any land to China and that at least 45 Chinese soldiers were killed in clashes at Galwan Valley, the Chinese government-affiliated media agency Shen Shiwei released a propaganda video of the clash between the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troopers in June last year.

Lt Gen Joshi, in an exclusive interview to CNN-News18, had said “China achieved nothing except loss of face” through the nine-month-long conflict in Ladakh. “It’s very surprising that they did what they did… They just earned a bad name and nothing else,” said Lt Gen Joshi.

The one-and-half-minute video, posted on Shen Shiwei’s official Twitter account, shows scores of Indian and Chinese soldiers skirmishing in a water body reportedly located in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.

China were forced to retreat from Pangong Tso after the Indian Army occupied the Kailash Range and had advantage over the PLA. “The Kailash Range was occupied with a purpose. The Chinese surprised us initially by occupying parts of our areas — till Finger 4 of the north bank — and the negotiations were going nowhere… Then, I got instructions from my chief that we need to gain some leverage. On August 29-30, we launched this operation and occupied the entire dominating heights of Rezang La, Rechin La on the south bank, on the north bank as well, where we were dominating the entire PLA deployment. This was done to gain some success on the negotiating table. This disengagement is happening because we had taken the dominating position on the Kailash range,” Lt Gen Joshi had said.

Meanwhile, with the Pangong Tso disengagement done, India and China are set to hold the 10th round of Corps Commander-level talks on Saturday.

The tenth round of Corps Commander-level talks are scheduled to start at 10 am at the Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control, and will be the first engagement between the two sides at a senior level after conclusion of the disengagement process in Pangong lake areas, sources said.

A top officer in the security grid confirmed to CNN-News18 that on the table at Moldo on Saturday morning there will be resolution of issues at Depsang, Gogra Hot Springs, CNN (Charding Ninglung Nallah) track junction at Demchok and Patrolling point 15.

“Earlier the Chinese side was reluctant to discuss Depsang while Indian side was clear that disengagement will be at all friction points. So now that Pangong Tso disengagement has happened and verification done by both sides, we move to phase 2 which is resolving other points of dispute. We want to resolve all issues, all friction points to be attended to,” the officer said.

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