Mark Nollan
Chinese and Indian soldiers posted pictures of their fight at the border online, while the governments of the two countries sought to cool down tensions.
A Chinese soldier on May 31 posted on WeChat a picture of the soldiers holding sticks near many Indian soldiers tied to limbs lying on the ground after a scuffle near Pangong Tso lake.
Chinese soldiers stood next to a group of Indian soldiers lying on the ground after a scuffle near Lake Pangong Tso Photo: SCMP
Many Chinese military sites then republished images of "Chinese soldiers knocking out Indian soldiers" after a fight last month between the two sides in a disputed area on Pangong Tso Lake.
A day earlier, the Indian side also posted to YouTube a video of its soldiers arresting a Chinese soldier, apparently beaten hard, after a fight on Pangong Tso Lake, located at an altitude of 4,350 m in the Himalayas.
Two sources close to the Chinese military said the soldiers injured in the attack were an interpreter, captured by India but then released with minor injuries after China called for reinforcements.
Sources said Indian and Chinese soldiers turned to "fight" on social networks to show "courageous action" in the context of senior leaders seeking to cool the situation in the war zone.
A source said the photo of a group of wounded Indian soldiers was posted by a Chinese soldier on a personal social network account, not from the Chinese military.
Military expert Zhou Chenming said Chinese troops at the border were ordered to restrain.
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Contested border area between China and India Photo: NYT
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Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, India's international relations expert, agrees with Zhou's view and believes that both countries understand the seriousness and sensitivity of border disputes.
"Civil and military officials of both countries have discussed the existing mechanisms. I think both India and China understand the risk, so the probability of a war between the two countries is low.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhao Lian Jian denied on Thursday that the country was mobilizing troops near the disputed area, but said the overall situation in the Sino-Indian border region "remained stable."
The border conflict between China and India has been escalating since 2017, when the two countries' soldiers participated in the most serious confrontation in the Doklam region, where China and Bhutan, an Indian ally, jointly declared
Contested border area between China and India.
