China, India trade charges of violating border firearm curbs

Bloomberg

India and China accused each other of firing warning shots in the air along their disputed Himalayan border for the first time in more than four decades in a new sign of friction days after top officials on both sides agreed to defuse tensions.
Indian troops “illegally crossed the Line of Actual Control on the southern bank of Pangong Tso and fired warning shots against patrolling Chinese forces,” Senior Colonel Zhang Shuili, a spokesman for the Western Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said in a statement. Chinese troops were “forced to take countermeasures to stabilise the situation,” Zhang said, without elaborating.
“The Indian behaviour has severely violated agreements reached between two sides and escalated tensions,” Zhang said, urging the Indians to withdraw. “Such behaviour could easily lead to miscalculation. It is a serious military provocation.”
The Indian army denied its soldiers crossed the disputed border “or resorted to use of any aggressive means, including firing.”
“It is the PLA that has been blatantly violating agreements and carrying out aggressive manoeuvers, while engagement at military, diplomatic and political level is in progress,” an Indian army statement said, adding that when “dissuaded” Chinese troops “fired a few rounds in the air in an attempt to intimidate.”
The last time Indian and Chinese troops opened fire was along their disputed border in the Arunachal Pradesh area of India in 1975. Military commanders on both sides have put in place protocols to ensure that troops don’t shoot and skirmishes are limited to physical altercations. Even before the news of the latest skirmish was public, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had described the border tensions as “very serious” while speaking at an event in New Delhi.
Jaishankar is likely to hold discussions with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi when he travels to Moscow for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting on Thursday. India’s foreign ministry spokesman didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Indian troops risk “being annihilated” if they use guns recklessly, Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper said in commentary. Hu Xijin, the paper’s editor-in-chief, said on Twitter, “as far as I know, the PLA’s analysis is: The Indian side is underestimating China’s will as they did before 1962 and takes for granted that China dare not fight a war.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs took a more conciliatory tone at a daily briefing in Beijing. Despite blaming New Delhi for firing first, Zhao Lijian, the ministry spokesman, told reporters “we the Chinese side always stress that both sides should peacefully settle our differences through dialogue and consultation. Confrontation won’t benefit either.”