Why latest India-China troop clash in Tawang is serious

The India-China border has flared up again after months of relative calm, with news breaking on Tuesday of an attempted Chinese incursion in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 9. Around 300 Chinese PLA troops armed with sticks and clubs tried to “change the status quo” along the LAC and were stopped in a “firm and resolute manner”, India said, resulting in injuries to soldiers on both sides but no deaths. Also Listen: When Indian & Chinese soldiers fought a common enemy The incident is reminiscent of the clash in Galwan in eastern Ladakh in June 2020 in which 20 Indian Army soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese PLA troops were killed. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has also made a statement in Parliament on the latest incident, underlining the resolve of the Indian troops to protect the country. What does the new clash in Tawang, signify? What exactly happened? Does this signal the beginning of a hard winter on the expansive India-China border? To answer all such questions and share his insight, we have Rajat Pandit, associate editor with The Times of India who specialises in security issues. The Tawang skirmish is not a routine one and the situation is quite tense, he says, and it is not a normal situation. What happened in Tawang? How long did the clash continue?“What we know is that in the early hours of December 9th around 300 Chinese PLA troops armed with clubs and sticks intruded across the Line of Actual Control to come near an Indian post at Yangste in the Tawang sector of Arunachal, they wanted to unilaterally change the status quo there,” Rajat says. “When the Indian troops deployed there saw them they challenged the Chinese troops and also called in for reinforcements. Then they confronted the Chinese troops in what the army said was in a ‘firm and resolute manner’ and managed to push back the PLA troops to their post after hand to hand combat that carried on for a few hours. Soldiers from both sides sustained some injuries and broken bones. Six to seven Indian soldiers were later evacuated to the military hospital in Guwahati though the injuries are not very serious.” What happened after the Tawang clash?“At the face-off site both sides disengaged after some time and the Indian brigade commander in the area held a flag meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Sunday to raise the matter,” Rajat says. “India has conveyed to China through both diplomatic and military channels to refrain from such actions and maintain peace and tranquillity along the LAC.”Why is the Tawang clash important, and worrying?Tawang, Rajat points out, is among the most heavily guarded areas along the the 3488km-long LAC which stretches from eastern Ladakh to Arunachal. “The Indian troop density is very high at Tawang because China has always claimed Tawang to be part of South Tibet and in the past also tried to intrude the across the LAC,” he says. “It has in the past damaged some walls, some bunkers, some infrastructure on the Indian side. Yangste in particular has been witnessing these frequent face-offs since the confrontation in eastern Ladakh erupted in April-May 2020. “Last year in October, for instance, the PLA also tried to intrude in the Yangste area to gain access to a peak there but even then alert Indian soldiers had thwarted their attempt,” Rajat says. “But while they have been several face-offs and minor skirmishes along the entire LAC over the last 23 years, this last week’s clash is the first major one since the violent Galwan valley incident in eastern Ladakh in June 2020. In Galwan, 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed -- this was the first time that the two countries witnessed casualties in a border clash in say 45 years.” What does the Tawang clash, after months of calm, signify?“While there is relative calm on the border the two main sites in eastern Ladakh, which are the strategically located Depsang plains and the CNN Track Junction and Demchowk, the face-off continues,” Rajat points out. “The latest incident, in my assessment, shows that China has no immediate intention to restore the status quo in eastern Ladakh or deescalate the heightened tensions all along the LAC so Indian and Chinese troops will continue to be deployed for the third consecutive winter in the heights all along the LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.” This, Rajat underlines, is not a normal situation – to have troops deployed at icy heights in the peak of winter in such hostile terrain where altitudes are often around 16,000 to 17000 feet above sea level and where the temperature drops to -30 to -40 degrees Celsius. This, he says, has happened only in the last three years. Audio production: Sahil Gupta