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

Shi Jiangtao

Published: 9:00am, 26 Aug 2020

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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.

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.

In contrast with a deafening silence on the Chinese side, New Delhi confirmed the deaths of 20 Indian troops within hours of the incident and released their names soon afterwards. China’s awkward position failed to stop Indian media speculating about its casualties, citing anonymous sources and putting the number of dead and injured at between 35 and 43.

Tensions remain high as the military stand-off that began in early May drags on, with no sign of any quick solution from diplomatic and military talks.

That “goodwill” did little to prevent the regional rivals’ border dispute spilling over into a broad, hostile fight over trade, investment, technology and geopolitics.

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With China fixated on the unfolding new cold war with the United States and on repairing its coronavirus-hit image, persistent border tension – risking war on two fronts – seems not to be in its strategic interest.

It’s also hard to see how Beijing’s secrecy over casualties would discourage India from taking the Americans’ side in US-China friction.

Silence over the deaths will further erode confidence in China’s credentials to be a responsible global power, adding to the case made by critics that its authoritarian system is obsessed with secrecy and information control.

Commenting on China’s infamous censorship 50 years ago in his book on the bloody 1962 India-China border war, Australian journalist Neville Maxwell wrote: “No government is more secretive as to its inner processes than that of the People’s Republic of China.”

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China is apparently aware that its global ambitions are at stake and, in the face of mounting calls at home and abroad for greater transparency, has been increasingly assertive about its record in this regard.

Amid international criticism for alleged cover-ups in its initial handling of the coronavirus, Chinese officials even insisted China had been “the most transparent”. Yet we have seen little if any real progress overall towards openness.

Lastly but not least, the Chinese public has the right to know what happened on that fatal night in Galwan, and how many were killed or injured.

As some people said online after the Indians who died had been honoured: shouldn’t the country at least acknowledge Chinese troops’ sacrifice?