A day after the Army announced that the Indian and Chinese troops clashed along the LAC in the Tawang sector on December 9, the Chinese state-backed media has blamed the Indian side for the clashes, stating that the face-off was "an attempt to release a certain message."
The report, quoting "experts," says that historically, conflicts on the India-China border rarely occur in winter.
Lin Minwang, a professor at the Institute of International Studies of Fudan University, told the Global Times that it was not surprising that both sides would clash in the eastern section of the border.
"What is worth noting is that historically, conflicts on the India-China border rarely occur in winter," Lin told the party mouth piece, adding that it is "possible that India has chosen this timing to start a conflict in an attempt to release a certain message."
"For India, at the strategic level, it needs to signal to the outside world that China-India relations are tense, which is related to maintaining its position in front of the US, and that India also wants to sustain its strategy of balanced diplomacy," the report quoted Lin.
The report also quoted Qian Feng, another China-India expert, who noted that the Tawang clash is likely to add to the instability of the region, but a flare-up is unlikely.
"But judging from the rapid calming down of the situation by the frontline border troops of both countries according to the existing communication mechanism, the possibility of further expansion of the situation is rather low," Qian, who is the director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told Global Times.
The Global Times, which made no mention of the incident until Tuesday evening (local time), also echoed the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) statement that the "Chinese border troops were on a routine patrol on the Chinese side of the LAC on an eastern section of the China-India border when Indian troops illegally crossed the line and blocked the Chinese forces."
PLA Western Theater Command spokesperson added that the "PLA dealt with the situation with professional, standard and powerful measures." Chinese Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin too had described the situation as "generally stable."
