India-China Stand-Off: Tensions still run high

Tensions remain high between India and China after Monday's border clashes that left 20 Indian soldiers killed as both sides blame each other and claim sovereignty over the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh.

China has said that India must not underestimate its firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty. The comments were made by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Twitter.

"India must not misjudge the current situation or underestimate China's firm will to safeguard its territorial sovereignty," Hua said in her first tweet.

"Indian front-line troops broke the consensus and crossed the Line of Actual Control, deliberately provoking and attacking Chinese officers and soldiers, thus triggering fierce physical conflicts and causing casualties," she said in a follow up tweet.

The remarks came a day after India's external affairs ministry rubbished the Chinese military's claim of sovereignty over the Galwan Valley, at the heart of a border stand-off.

External affairs minister spokesperson Anurag Srivastava yesterday again rejected the Chinese side's claim that the sovereignty of Galwan Valley "belongs to China".

"Making exaggerated and untenable claims is contrary to this understanding," Srivatava said in his rebuttal.

The Galwan Valley - the site of the bloody clash between soldiers from both sides - has been one of the few areas along the Line of Actual Control where the difference in perception of the boundary between the two sides was minimal.

The two countries have been trading charges of what triggered Monday night's face-off in Galwan Valley that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and 76 more wounded including 18 with serious injuries.

Indian Army officials claimed 43 Chinese were killed or seriously injured, citing radio intercepts and other intelligence, reports Hindustan Times.

Meanwhile, high resolution satellite images procured by NDTV indicate Chinese efforts to block or disturb the flow of the Galwan river, less than a kilometre from the site of the deadly clash.

The details emerged as an Indian Major General and his Chinese counterpart met for the second consecutive day near Patrol Point 14 in the Galwan Valley. The talks on Wednesday were inconclusive with the Chinese side showing no sides of disengaging from the area.

FUNERALS FOR SOLDIERS

India prepared to hold funerals yesterday for some of the 20 soldiers killed in brutal hand-to-hand fighting with Chinese troops in the disputed mountainous border region.

Dozens of people lined the street in the southern Indian town of Suryapet as the body of army Colonel B.Santosh Babu was brought home, wrapped in the Indian flag, reports Reuters.

Funerals of other soldiers also took place in their hometowns and villages, including several in the eastern state of Bihar.

Hardline nationalist groups with ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party have stepped up calls for a boycott of Chinese goods and a cancellation of contracts with Chinese firms.

China's Oppo cancelled the live online launch of its flagship smartphone in India.

In the western Indian city of Surat, a group of people gathered on Wednesday and threw a Chinese-made television set on the ground and stomped on it in a show of protest.

India has told two state-run telecoms firms to use locally-made rather than Chinese telecom equipment to upgrade their mobile networks to 4G, a senior government source said yesterday.

The instruction is aimed at Chinese telecom gear makers Huawei and ZTE, the source said, after India last year announced an almost $8 billion plan, some of which was earmarked for network upgrades, to help loss-making operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL).

"Since that plan will be funded by public money they (BSNL, MTNL) should try to ensure they buy made in India equipment," the government source, who declined to be named as the order was not public, told Reuters.