(TibetanReview.net, Jan08’22) – China has rejected on Jan 7 India’s accusation that it is building a bridge in an illegally occupied area of its Union Territory of Lakakh. What is more, its People’s Liberation Army’s western theatre command (WTC), which oversees the disputed border with India, will offer stones from the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh to netizens on Feb 1.
The bridge under construction connects the north and south banks of Pangong Lake, thehindu.com Jan 8 cited officials as saying, and it would bolster Chinese capabilities to move troops and equipment between its garrisons on the two sides. The construction was stated to be taking place at around 25 km on the Chinese occupied side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
India said Jan 6 that the area was under “illegal” occupation of China for the last six decades. “India has never accepted such illegal occupation,” said India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi Jan 6.
On Jan 7, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin rejected India’s claim. “I want to stress that China’s infrastructure construction on its territory entirely falls within its sovereignty.” It is “aimed at safeguarding China’s territorial sovereignty and security as well as peace and stability in the China-India border area,” the report quoted him as saying
Meanwhile, on Jan 7, The WTC opened its official account on Twitter-like Sina Weibo and released a notice that on Feb 1 it will “..randomly choose 10 lucky netizens from those who reposted the notice and send them a stone from the Galwan Valley as a present.”
Accompanying the notice was a “picture with Chinese soldiers patrolling the Galwan Valley, with a rock face seen in the post reading in Chinese characters ‘Splendid landscape, no inch to give up’”, reported China’s official Global Times newspaper Jan 7 evening.
This is the Chinese government’s latest effort to use the brutal clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers on the night of June 15 in Galwan Valley as propaganda to push through its narrative, painting India as the aggressor, commented the hindustantimes.com Jan 7.
The non-firearm night clash led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers.
