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The Indian government’s Border Roads Organization (BRO) announced a “major infrastructural development” project this week in Arunachal Pradesh, a mountainous border region on the other side of occupied Tibet where Chinese soldiers brawled with Indian border patrol just weeks ago.
India and China have been experiencing border skirmishes – in which either side blames the other for illegally entering their country, prompting the use of force to eject the invading force – with increasing frequency since June 2020, when hundreds of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops crossed into India’s Ladakh region, resulting in a battle that left an estimated 60 men dead. India and China disagree on the location of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the international border, that cuts through the Himalayas and severs India from the Chinese communist-occupied regions of Tibet and East Turkistan.
The Indian government claimed in 2020 that it lost about 20 soldiers, including a ranking officer, in the Galwan Valley battle, while the Chinese regime lost about 40 troops despite allegedly being “badly outnumbered.” China has only admitted to four deaths in the incident as of 2022.
As, at the time, the rules of engagement on either side forbade the use of firearms, the battle was fought with rocks, sticks, and other rudimentary weapons.
The more recent encounter in Arunachal Pradesh unfolded similarly, with reports of Chinese troops armed with sticks wrapped in barbed wire and stones crossing into the disputed Tawang region. The Indian military affirmed to the public that it had expelled the invading Chinese forces “in a firm and resolute manner” and only minor injuries had occurred on either side. While the rules of engagement changed in 2020 to allow firearms, none were used in the exchange, which occurred on December 9.
China confirmed that the incident occurred but offered no meaningful details.
