Beijing, February 19
Four Chinese soldiers were killed during a fierce hand-to-hand battle with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year, the PLA acknowledged for the first time on Friday, eight months after the biggest military confrontation between the two neighbours in over five decades.
China’s military authorities have honoured two officers and three soldiers, including four who received the awards posthumously, for defending the country’s western border, the official Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the The People’s Liberation Army Daily, the newspaper of the Chinese military.
A handout photo released by Indian Army on February 16, 2021, shows the disengagement process between Indian Army and China s Peoples Liberation Army from a contested area in the western Himalayas, in Ladakh region. Indian Army/Handout via REUTERS
Commander-level talks are scheduled for Saturday to discuss pulling back from other areas, the officer said.
The Chinese announcement came in the military s newspaper, the People s Liberation Army Daily, which said the four killed were named state martyrs.
The title of border-defending hero was conferred on Battalion Commander Chen Hongjun, while Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran received first-class merit awards. It attributed their deaths to a clash with trespassing foreign military personnel, without mentioning India directly.
A screenshot from a video shows Indian Army and China s People s Liberation Army soldiers shaking hands on Feb. 11 near a contested area in the Ladakh region in the western Himalayas. Tensions appear to have been reduced after a territorial dispute boiled over last year.(Indian Army/Reuters TV)
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