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At least 20 Indian soldiers died in a brawl with Chinese troops in the Himalayas, instantly raising tensions to a high pitch between India and China.
An Indian military spokesman said on Tuesday that three Indian soldiers were killed during the fighting, which involved rocks and wooden clubs, and 17 others succumbed to injuries and cold in the freezing, high-elevation terrain. Preliminary reports indicated that the soldiers had not been shot.
Indian media reported that Chinese soldiers had been killed, but this was not confirmed by Beijing.
The two countries had been working to de-escalate border tensions following several face-offs between Chinese and Indian troops in recent weeks.
Context: The violence is a continuation of a long-running dispute between India and China about the precise location of their jagged Himalayan border, known as the Line of Actual Control. They fought a war over it in 1962 that ended in an uneasy peace.
What’s next: “Neither side wants a war, especially India, because China has a far superior military,” Jeffrey Gettleman, our New Delhi bureau chief, told me. “Both sides are now trying to calm things down, at least that’s what the governments are telling us. What’s actually happening up on the Himalayan border, that’s another story. It’s a very remote area, off-limits to all but a few lonely herders and Indian and Chinese troops.”
Beijing raised its level of health alert to the second highest on Tuesday, ordering schools to close and urging people to work from home, as the government pressed to stop a spike in coronavirus infections.
Medical authorities confirmed another 27 infections, creating a total of 106 cases since last week, all traced to the sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food market in the city’s south.
City officials face intense pressure to extinguish the new outbreak. President Xi Jinping has made defending Beijing from virus infections a priority.
Dozens of cities and provinces across China have in recent days stepped up monitoring and quarantine measures for people from Beijing.
Here are the latest updates and maps of where the virus has spread.
In other developments:
North Korea blew up a building where its officials had recently worked side by side with their South Korean counterparts in a liaison office. It was a clear message from the North of its displeasure with the South.
South Korean border guards heard an explosion and saw smoke rising from Kaesong, the North Korean town where the building was located. The blast was so powerful that windows in nearby buildings were shattered. (Watch the video.)
No South Koreans had worked in the office since January, when it was closed during the pandemic.
