With Galwan soldier as Olympic torchbearer, China continues to use Galwan symbolism for PsyOps

Qi Fabao, a regiment commander of the People’s Liberation Army, who had fought during the Galwan Valley clashes with Indian troops in June 2020, and had received a commendation for his role in the fight, was one of the torchbearers for the Olympic flame for the Winter Olympics beginning in Beijing from February 4. His images were released by Global Times, an English-language news platform associated with the Chinese government in a tweet.

It has been a year and a half since the troops clashed in violent hand-to-hand combat in the Galwan Valley that resulted in casualties on both sides, but China has used images and symbolism related to the clash and the valley, projecting that it had the upper hand in the clashes, even as the two countries are embroiled in political, diplomatic and military talks to resolve the standoff that began in May 2020.

“Qi Fabao, a PLA regiment commander who sustained head injury while fighting bravely in the #Galwan Valley border skirmish with #India, is a torchbearer during Wed’s #Beijing2022 Winter Olympic Torch Relay.” Global Times tweeted on Wednesday morning.

Last year, China’s Military Commission had conferred the title of “hero regiment commander for defending the border” on him.

By making him a torchbearer, the Chinese government has publicly tried to project Qi as a hero, and highlighted that he was involved in the Galwan Valley fight. The gesture seems to be a deliberate attempt to cock a snook at India, which had refused to join five Western nations—the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and Lithuania— to boycott the games, and has sent one participant.

But this is not the only time that China has brought up Galwan Valley, in what appear to be PsyOps, or psychological operations, as part of a larger propaganda, even as the tensions between India and China continue to remain at a historic high. The over 21-month-long military standoff in eastern Ladakh, of which Galwan Valley skirmish was a part of, is yet to be resolved, and the talks have been stuck in a stalemate since July last year.

The clashes had resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers, including a Colonel, while China had last year admitted to losing at least four of its troops, making it the bloodiest encounter between the troops of the two nations in over four decades.

Less than a month ago, the Global Times had reported that PLA’s Western Theatre Command, responsible for the entire border with India, debuted on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo on January 7, with a notice announcing that “On February 1 it will randomly choose 10 lucky netizens from those who reposted the notice and send them a stone from the Galwan Valley as a present.” It added that a “picture with Chinese soldiers patrolling the Galwan Valley, with a rockface seen in the post reading in Chinese characters ‘Splendid landscape, no inch to give up’ was posted together with the notice.”

Just a week after the Indian Army released images of Indian and Chinese soldiers exchanging New Year’s greetings across several points on the Line of Actual Control, Chinese handles associated with state-owned media shared a video of PLA troops unfurling China’s national flag in the Galwan Valley. Shen Shiwei, a journalist with China Global Television Network, tweeted the video saying, “China’s national flag rise over Galwan Valley on the New Year Day of 2022. This national flag is very special since it once flew over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.”

In response, the Indian Army, too, put out photos of Indian soldiers with the national flag in the Galwan Valley. Army sources had later mentioned that video with Chinese soldiers was shot on their side of the LAC, much deeper than the demilitarised zone that was created after the two sides had agreed to disengage from Patrolling Point 14 in Galwan Valley, immediately after the clashes, moving back 2 kms on either side.

It is important to note that most of the nearly 65-km-long Galwan River is on the Chinese side of the LAC, with just over 5 km on the Indian side, before it merges with the Shyok River.

In September too, while celebrating their Martyr’s Day, the Western Theatre Command had reportedly released a video of its soldiers along the Galwan River, stating that they had given their lives to defend the country.

In February 2021, when both sides were in the process of pulling back their troops from the north and south banks of Pangong Tso, where troops and tanks were just a few hundred meters apart in some locations, Chinese journalist Shen released a video on Twitter, which he claimed was of the Galwan Valley fight. He said in his tweet, “On-site video of last June’s #GalwanValley skirmish released. It shows how did #India’s border troops gradually trespass into Chinese side. #ChinaIndiaFaceoff”.

This came just hours after China, for the first time, officially announced that four PLA personnel, including a battalion commander, died in clashes with Indian troops in the Galwan Valley, and another officer, of the rank of a Colonel, was “seriously injured in the skirmish”. The video also showed an honour guard carrying the coffins of Chinese soldiers killed in the Galwan clashes.