India says all those killed were Indian. It’s not even remotely clear what started the clash, but apparently it happened on Monday, and tensions are high right now:
The Indian government said that 20 of its troops died in a clash in an area known as the Galwan Valley and that casualties resulted on both sides. The valley is in an area where the border is in dispute.
The Chinese government didn’t comment on casualties for either side, confirming only that a clash took place after Indian soldiers crossed into an area it considers under Chinese control.
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In case you’re wondering what this is all about, there’s a region of the Himalayans in which the China/India border lies . . . somewhere. Ever since the two countries went to war in 1962, the exact location of that border has been in dispute. Both countries have built infrastructure in the general vicinity – China first, and India now in catchup mode – and that’s sometimes elevated tensions as one side watches closely to make sure the other isn’t venturing onto the “wrong” side of the line.
Not that anyone agrees on where the line is.
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In spite of this dispute that’s gone on for nearly 60 years, it’s been rare for anyone to be killed in a dispute over a crossing. Until Monday, it hadn’t happened at all until 1975. That one involved four people.
If 20 Indian troops were really killed by the Chinese merely for wandering across a disputed line, that’s a very serious international incident that seems like it could and should have been avoided. What will come of it is impossible to say, although it’s worth remembering that both China and India have nuclear weapons.
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Sometimes the presence of nukes helps to calm things down, as both sides understand the consequences of an out-of-control escalation. But these are turbulent times and there’s no guarantee that’s going to happen. If tensions keep rising because you now have people dead, we could be on the brink of one of the scariest scenarios since the Cuban Missile Crisis – which, ironically, happened the same year as the China-India war that started all this.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a good relationship with the United States in general, and with Donald Trump in particular, and could seek the backing of the U.S. to help turn back China’s aggressive actions here. China’s already in enough hot water with the rest of the world after sticking all of us with a deadly virus, and Trump is already looking for ways to make China pay a price for that.
Pray that this calms down. This is most definitely a conflict the world does not need.
Also, riddle me this: When was the last time a war was fought between two countries in which Christianity was the primary faith system for both?
