China organized the first nationwide homages on Sunday to four soldiers killed fighting Indian troops on the nations’ border in June, the first time the Communist Party had allowed such public mourning over the incident in nearly a year.
Chinese and Indian soldiers clashed over the illegal presence of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops in the Galwan Valley, part of India’s Ladakh region, in June 2020. The PLA troops had reportedly established tents in the area and, when approached by Indian soldiers, attacked. Terms of engagement on the India-China border at the time did not allow soldiers to carry firearms, resulting in gruesome reports of the Chinese troops attacking with rocks, sticks wrapped in barbed wire, and other rudimentary weapons. The steep Himalayan terrain resulted in reports of many deaths due to falls off cliffs and hypothermia, in addition to battle kills.
The Indian government immediately revealed
