Yangtse: How India Beat Back PLA Incursions & Where The Army Looks Down On Chinese Positions

The deadly June 2020 Galwan clashes, between the Indian and Chinese armies, have changed the rules of the strategic game in terms of India’s foreign policy and military posture. As a result, Post Galwan, China’s PLA failed in two more incursion attempts in Yangtse, Tawang sector in western Arunachal Pradesh at the other extremity of the LAC. Also, both times, they were literally and figuratively beaten back.

Yangtse: In the fifth and final episode of ‘Along The China Front: Commanding The Tawang Heights’, StratNews Global‘s team of Amitabh P. Revi and Rohit Pandita report from Yangtse. We travel to and through the area to document the past, present, and future of Yangtse. After the deadly Galwan clashes in 2020, the Chinese attempted similar incursions, at the other extremity of the LAC, in the eastern sector in Arunachal Pradesh. Markedly, both were literally beaten back. Since the Sumdurong Chu standoff, India has occupied the dominating heights, Lt Gen Sanjay Kulkarni(Retd), Former DG, Infantry points out, saying, “Yangtse is a position of strength. Also, he poined out, when (India) you occupy that particular height. They always feel that they’re being looked down upon and everything is right under our noses.

ISR On India-China Border

They don’t like that,” adding, they came “with an intention. But, our vigilance and preparation prevented them from doing what they probably thought they would (like) at Galwan.” Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) is the only way to survive, the Ex-Brigade Commander in Tawang insists, whether with “drones, satellites or surveillance”. There have been reports of real-time U.S. intelligence during the December 2022 foiled PLA attempt, but, Claude Arpi, Sinologist and Tibetologist dismisses tactical intelligence sharing as “exaggerated”, even though strategic cooperation including intelligence is on the up-swing.

Chumi Gyatse

Watch this documentary as we travel to the revered Chumi Gyatse or Holy Waterfalls at Yangtse. Benedict Rogers, China Analyst, and Author also calls out the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) double standards in claiming the area as being extremely “ironic”, pointing to the CCP’s propensity to on the one hand “repress religion” while trying “to weaponise it when it suits them.”

Editor’s Note: First aired July 7, 2023. At the present time, on March 10, 2024 this episode has 100,000+ views.

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