In what may raise the hackles of the Indian military establishment, China deputed a soldier, who was part of the PLA team involved in a bloody clash with Indian Army jawans at the Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh in June 2022, as a torch-bearer at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Torch Relay on Wednesday.
”Qi Fabao, a PLA regiment commander who sustained head injury while fighting bravely in the Galwan Valley border skirmish with India, is a torch-bearer during Wed’s Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Torch Relay,” Chinese state-run Global Times tweeted.
Qi carried the flame from Wang Meng, China’s four-time Olympic short track speed skating champion, at the Winter Olympic Park.
The Winter Olympics will open on Friday at a ceremony to be attended by President Xi Jinping and more than a dozen world leaders, including Russia President Vladimir Putin and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Several nations, including the US, UK, Australia and Canada have announced they would boycott the opening ceremony in protest against human rights violations by China in Xinjiang.
Twenty Indian Army personnel, including a commanding officer (CO), were killed in the Galwan Valley clash in June 2002, bringing India and China close to a full-fledged war.
The Chinese side initially did not announce the number of casualties on its side in the clash but later acknowledged that four of its soldiers too were killed.
India and Chinese troops are still locked in a military stand-off in Eastern Ladakh which began in April-May 2020.