India-China tensions: is Beijing trying to calm things down?

Indian military trucks in the Ladakh region in September 2017 (illustration).

AP - Manish Swarup

Text by: Heike Schmidt Follow

5 mins

Friday, February 19, eight months after clashes between its soldiers and Indian soldiers on the Himalayan border, China reported four dead in its ranks and broadcast images of the fighting.

Interview with Jean-Luc Racine, CNRS research director and specialist in Asia.

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On June 15, 2020, in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters,

Indian and Chinese soldiers fought

with sticks and stones, firearms being banned there.

India had reported about twenty killed in its ranks, but it was only this Friday, February 19 that we learned that there were four deaths on the Chinese side.

Video in support, Beijing says that the Indians had " 

crossed the border to pitch tents

 " and therefore " 

provoked

 " the Chinese response.

RFI: Why did Beijing finally recognize that Chinese soldiers died during this border clash, eight months after the fact

?

Jean-Luc Racine

:

Chinese officials and the Chinese press have finally decided to celebrate the patriotism of the four dead soldiers.

Why now ?

It can be assumed that this goes hand in hand with the ongoing de-escalation process, since today the tenth meeting between high-ranking generals takes place to try to bring the situation back to normal along the line. control, disputed between India and China, in this part of the Himalayas.

And this meeting takes place, as we learn that the so-called "mutual disengagement", that is, the withdrawal of troops from both sides, is now completed around the famous Pangong Lake, which of significant strategic importance, south-east of the Line of Control.

►

See also: China and India reach a mutual disengagement agreement in Ladakh

So it may be that, regardless of the patriotic discourse that denounces the Indian aggression, recognizing that there were deaths in the Chinese ranks, it is also a way of integrating, in a way, in a process. which nevertheless aims at standardization.

We can therefore speak of a sign of goodwill, but is it at the same time a show of force, since the Chinese have only confirmed four deaths, while the Indians had announced 20 victims

?

Yes of course.

There is an asymmetry which is not entirely surprising.

We had heard, on the Indian side, that the Chinese could have had about forty dead.

But of course, there's no way of knowing what really happened.

On the other hand, I think the Chinese were dealing, perhaps, with an India that responded more than they expected, on the one hand.

And on the other hand, of course, in the context of global geopolitics and the tensions between the United States and China that are prolonged with the Biden administration, the image of a China trying to nibble at both on its maritime borders, in the South China Sea and on its Himalayan borders with India, there may be a desire to try to calm things down.

You tell us about this "mutual disengagement" which was concluded at the beginning of February.

How many soldiers will have to leave the area to calm tensions

?

We do not know the exact figure.

What we know and what we have seen, since there have been videos showing it, is that there have been withdrawals of Chinese tanks.

Obviously, on the Chinese side, they are on a plateau, so they can bring heavy weapons.

We are talking, on the Indian side - all the same - of a few tens of thousands of troops.

The fighting had taken place on the “line of effective control”, the border between the two countries, which dates from Indian independence in 1947. Will it be better defined thanks to the current talks or will it be necessary to 'expect more skirmishes

?

It is quite likely that there will be other skirmishes, because what is being negotiated is the process of returning the troops to previous positions and lowering the level of the military presence.

But on the other hand, the question you raise, it remains completely open.

There are still major differences in how Beijing reads, on the one hand, and New Delhi's reading, on the other.

There is disagreement on what should be, at

a minimum

, the line of control, which is still contested by both parties.

It is for that, moreover, that there can always be skirmishes.

This dossier will remain on the table for future negotiations, provided that bilateral relations improve.

Because it must be remembered that the Indian government said that after these incidents which had cost the lives of many of their soldiers, things were not as before.

New Delhi considers that we cannot pretend that nothing has happened along the Line of Control in 2020.

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