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China-India border: PLA officer wounded in Galwan clash ‘keen to return to front line’
- Qi Fabao, who sustained head wounds in the conflict last year, tells CCTV he is ready to ‘return to the battlefield’
- The 13th round of negotiations between frontline military commanders broke down in late October, bringing the stand-off into a second winter
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A Chinese officer who was in a coma and received head injuries in a border clash with India last year says he is now ready to go back to the front line, according to Chinese state media.
Lieutenant Colonel Qi Fabao is a regimental commander of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Xinjiang Military District who led a group of soldiers against the Indian troops in the deadly fight in the Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020. Qi told CCTV on Thursday he had recovered well from his head wounds.
“I am ready to return to the battlefield and fight again,” he said.
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The skirmish in the barren mountains between Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin and Indian-controlled East Ladakh was the worst conflict between China and India in decades.
It claimed the lives of Chinese battalion commander Chen Hongjun and soldiers Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran, as well as at least 20 Indian military personnel, including Colonel Santosh Babu.
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India ramps up defences on Himalayan border after deadly clashes with China
India ramps up defences on Himalayan border after deadly clashes with China
The Chinese side said the clash started as Qi and his soldiers were “violently ambushed” by Indian soldiers when they were crossing the waist-deep river to negotiate on a border trespassing.
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