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

China-India border dispute

Liu Zhen

Published: 4:25pm, 10 Dec 2021

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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.

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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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.

However, the Indian side blamed the fight on the PLA crossing the line and Chinese provocation.

After Qi was rescued, transported by helicopter and eventually taken to a hospital in Chongqing, he had several major surgeries, according to the report. Meanwhile, many wounded Indian soldiers reportedly died in the cold, high-altitude terrain.

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The incident seriously damaged China-India diplomatic ties and triggered military confrontation between the two nuclear-powered neighbours, which have a disputed border running thousands of kilometres through the Himalayas.

The 13th round of negotiations between frontline military commanders broke down in late October, bringing the stand-off into a second winter.

In June, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a July 1 Medal, the highest award given to Communist Party members, posthumously to Chen Hongjun, whose wife gave birth to a son four months after his death.

Qi and Chen were both given heroes’ awards, while the three soldiers were posthumously given first-class merit awards.

Last month, India posthumously awarded Colonel Santosh Babu its second-highest military gallantry honour, the Maha Vir Chakra, for fighting the Chinese “till his last breath”.

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China did not reveal the exact number of casualties and the names of the wounded and dead until February. One expert said China sought to avoid inspiring excessive nationalism and hostility at home and to avert a complete relationship breakdown with India.

On Thursday’s CCTV programme, Qi, 42, said he was told by his doctor that during the coma, his brain was constantly in a stressed state, and his arms and legs were kicking and punching.

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“When I came back to consciousness, my thoughts went straight back to whether the enemy was repelled and whether my fellow soldiers were safe,” he said.

Qi was a veteran of the Indian border before the Galwan Valley clash. In January 2020, a video clip of him arguing with Indian troops went viral on Chinese social media and he was nicknamed “the overcoat man” and commended for his toughness.