After China and India reached a preliminary agreement on troop withdrawal, Chinese official media released details of the Galwan Valley clash between Chinese and Indian troops in June last year, which sparked a lively discussion on China’s social media. According to analyst Wang Qiang, there are three main reasons why China chose to release Chinese military’s casualty figures at this time.
First, it has been more than half a year since the bloody clashes in June. Compared to India’s almost immediate announcement of casualty figures and public commemorations, China’s official delay in revealing army casualty figures has stirred discontent among some in the civilian population who believe that the Chinese government lacks respect for martyrs. But in fact, the Chinese government would announce the figure sooner or later to show its accountability to the troops and their families, and to the whole country.
Second, as the Sino-Indian conflict has come to a temporary end, the proper release of information about the conflict will not have a negative impact on military operations. During the military standoff, casualty figures were military secrets to the Chinese military, as are other information such as army deployments and new weapons. While the Chinese army has previously displayed some high-profile information about Chinese military training and new weapons again India, this was mainly to warn the arrogant Indian army. In short, the delay in releasing details of the conflict is consistent with Beijing’s usual calm and collected approach.
The third reason, perhaps the most important and profound, is that since the end of the war with Vietnam in 1980s, the Chinese military has not fought in actual combat for about 30 years. Even if there were casualties, most of them were the casualties of China’s Armed Police Forces in anti-terrorism operations. In addition, the Chinese army has many “only children”. Therefore, the Chinese society tends to be sensitive to war casualties.
The degree of such sensitivity will not only have a subtle effect on the future recruitment tasks of the Chinese army, but will also influence the Chinese top leaders’ determination to go to a real war. There are also reasons for the Chinese military’s efforts to improve food and housing conditions for troops on the front line during previous standoffs against India. Therefore, this announcement of casualty figures is also a test and warm-up for the Chinese public opinion.
Judging from the discussions on the Chinese Internet so far, most public opinion is indignant about the casualties caused by the Indian army’s ambush, while a minority of public opinion is “ashamed” of the Chinese army’s “being besieged” and unhappy with the “retreat” of the authority. These public opinions are likely to contribute to more vigorous Chinese military actions against India in the future.
