China planned Galwan Valley incident, says US report

In June, China's People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Indian troops engaged in a massive physical brawl in the Galwan Valley

A congressional commission of the United States Government noted in its latest report that China had planned in advance for the violent clash between its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian Army along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley on June 15.

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a.k.a US-China Commission, (USCC) in its report to the American Congress gave a detailed account of the escalation of tension between New Delhi and Beijing over the Chinese PLA’s aggressive moves to change the status quo along the disputed boundary with India in eastern Ladakh. The report noted that 2020 was 'the worst year' for Sino-Indian relations 'in decades.

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The report referred to the June 15 physical brawl between the soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA close to the LAC – the de facto boundary between the two nations in the western sector – in Galwan Valley. “Some evidence suggested the Chinese Government had planned the incident, potentially including the possibility for fatalities,” noted the USCC, which was set up in October 2000 to monitor security and trade issues between the US and China.

The Indian Army lost 20 of its soldiers in the clash with the Chinese PLA in Galwan Valley. The PLA too suffered casualties, but never made public the number of its soldiers, who were injured or killed in the overnight violent face-off.

When External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called his counterpart in the Chinese Government, Wang Yi, just two days after the incident, he accused the Chinese PLA of launching a 'premeditated' attack on the Indian Army personnel and warned that it would have a 'serious impact' on the relations between the two nations.

The US panel now noted that Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe had made a statement several weeks prior to the clash in Galwan Valley 'encouraging President Xi Jinping’s regime in Beijing to 'use fighting to promote stability'.

“Just over two weeks before the incident, in another potential indication of Chinese leaders signalling their intent to escalate tensions, an editorial in China’s state-owned tabloid Global Times warned that India would suffer a ‘devastating blow’ to its trade and economic ties with China if it got 'involved in the US-China rivalry'.

Besides, the report also referred to the satellite images that 'depicted a large Chinese PLA build-up in the Galwan Valley, including potentially 1,000 soldiers, the week before the deadly skirmish'.

The seven-month-long military stand-off between India and China in eastern Ladakh, particularly the clash in Galwan Valley, brought the relations between the two nations to a new low.