Modi says China isn’t occupying Indian territory after clashes

Bloomberg

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has walked into a diplomatic minefield over his nation’s disputed border with China.
The hashtag #ModiSurrendersToChina was trending on Twitter on Saturday after Modi stated no one had entered Indian territory or captured any military posts in the deadly clashes that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and the capture by the Chinese military — and later release — of 10 more.
“Neither is anyone inside our territory nor is any of our posts captured,” Modi told opposition leaders at an all-party meeting. His statement raised questions over where the soldiers were when the clashes took place — in Indian or Chinese territory — in an area where a large part of the boundary is unmarked. It also contradicted the assertions of his own foreign ministry.
Just two days earlier, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that the Chinese army had tried to erect a post in the Galwan Valley on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control — a 3,488 kilometre (2,167 mile) un-demarcated border. In a statement after the call, New Delhi accused China of an “intent to change the facts on ground in violation of all our agreements to not change the status quo.”
Modi’s office issued a statement seeking to clarify the “mischievous interpretation” given to his remarks.
“Prime Minister was clear that India would respond firmly to any attempts to transgress the Line of Actual Control. In fact, he specifically emphasized that in contrast to the past neglect of such challenges, Indian forces now decisively counter any violations of LAC,” the statement reads.
“Violence in Galwan on 15 June arose because Chinese side was seeking to erect structures just across the LAC and refused to desist from such actions.”
The furore has been a setback to military talks between the two nations aimed at de-escalating the situation along the border where forces have recently clashed, with his earlier comments appearing legitimise Chinese claims. It’s provoked angry responses from India’s army veterans and analysts who saw it as New Delhi ceding territory to China to avoid escalation and prompted China to reiterate on Saturday that Indian soldiers had violated agreements.
“The biggest implication is that wherever the Chinese have in fact changed the ground status quo—whether in Galwan Valley or Pangong Tso or elsewhere—is tacitly being accepted by the government as de facto Chinese claims,” said Vipin Narang, associate professor of political science at MIT and author of ‘Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era: Regional Powers and International Conflict.’
“One can litigate whether this is in fact ‘Indian territory,’ but it is tacitly accepting whatever faits accomplis China has undertaken.” Within hours of Modi’s initial comments, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted that Indian troops
had provoked the deadly skirmish and reiterated that China claimed the Galwan valley as its own.
“India’s front-line troops, in violation of the agreement reached at the commander-level meeting, once again crossed the Line of Actual Control for deliberate provocation when the situation in the Galwan Valley was already easing,” Lijian said of the clashes.
The deadly clash had dealt a heavy blow to China-India ties, which were already suffering, said Sun Shihai, director of the China Center for South Asian Studies in Sichuan University.
“I think Modi is trying to appease the searing anti-China nationalism at home and avoid the further escalation of the situation into another China-India war, even though he is likely to face some backlash from opposition at home,” Sun said.