Indian and Chinese border troops exchanged gunfire last week, Indian officials said on Wednesday. The incident occurred just days before the foreign ministers from both countries met in Moscow to discuss tensions over the vague Line of Actual Control, the disputed border in the western Himalayas.
There have been three incidents of gunfire, mostly warning shots, since late August with no reported casualties. Since the two countries have had a long-standing agreement not to use firearms in the area, these incidents marked the first time in 45 years that India and China exchanged shots at the border.
Military sources told The South China Morning Post that Chinese border troops increased their combat readiness to the second-highest level after last week’s gunfire. The alert was lowered after the foreign ministers from India and China met in Moscow last week and agreed to reduce tensions.
A source told the Post that the increase in China’s combat readiness meant more weapons and troops were deployed to the border. This was the first time China’s combat readiness was this high since 1987 after a skirmish brought the two countries to the brink of war.
Tensions have been simmering between Beijing and New Delhi in the Himalayas since a clash broke out in June that resulted in the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers. China said it suffered casualties in the skirmish as well but has not disclosed any numbers.
Modi desperately needs to stoke tensions with China after an unending series of disasters. The economy, already moribund after his demonetisation of 86% of the Indian currency in 2016 and a shambolic sales tax two years later, is now in the morgue; even the regime’s own figures admit a fall of 24.9% in the economy this year. The efforts to paint Muslims as “Coronavirus jihadists” bit the dust after the courts acquitted those accused. Other courts have now ordered media ownership details to be made public, which is very bad news for Modi’s party covertly-owned full time propaganda channels Republic and Times Now. Unemployment is running at at least 40%, the regime’s attempts to call its detractors “anti nationals” is earning diminishing returns, and it has painted itself into a corner by its own bombastic claims (such as the prediction that manufacturers would abandon China for India and – this was made on 16 April – that by 16 May there wouldn’t be a single new Covid 19 case in India). The manufacturers did not shift to India, Covid 19 cases have even by the regime’s numbers reached second position in the world, and Modi’s latest Monkey Butt public address video on YouTube got so much negative response that the government shut down comments and downvotes on it. It literally has nothing left but border confrontation to distract attention now, and, having stoked a “strongman” image for years, the gibbering globetrotting Gujarati genocidaire gangster can’t negotiate a settlement because he’ll look “weak”. So expect the regime to keep inciting border confrontations in a desperate attempt to keep attention away from the disaster at home.
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