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As I see it | Why it’s in China’s interests to reveal its death toll in India border clash
- Silence over the number of Chinese soldiers killed or injured has not helped to resolve the dispute
- Greater openness could prove effective in the context of China’s wider ambitions
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More than 70 days have passed since the deadliest clash in half a century along China’s Himalayan border with India, and Beijing has yet to reveal the number of its casualties.
China’s defence ministry admitted there had been Chinese casualties during violent brawls on June 15 in Galwan Valley that took the Asian giants to the brink of armed conflict. But Beijing has made no mention of the death toll or the reason for its secrecy.
It is not in China’s interest to keep people in the dark on this issue of great public interest, and there are multiple reasons for the government to come clean.
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Firstly, secrecy will not help to break the impasse in talks and is harmful to China’s deeply strained relations with India, marred by misperceptions, mutual distrust and enmity.
China’s state-controlled tabloid Global Times claimed withholding information about the death toll signalled “goodwill”, to avoid comparisons and manage nationalist sentiment, but this makes little sense.
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