China names Tibet-Xinjiang highway bridges after slain Galwan soldiers

This was done ‘as a way of commemorating’ the soldiers who had ‘become the epitome of Chinese people’s ever-growing patriotic sentiment’: report

In this file photo taken from undated video footage run by China’s CCTV via AP video, an honor guard carries the coffins of Chinese soldiers killed in a clash at Galwan valley. | Photo Credit: AP

Beijing on November 4, 2022 said it had named 11 bridges along its key Tibet-Xinjiang highway, parts of which run through Aksai Chin, after four Chinese soldiers killed in the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash.

Eleven bridges along the G219 national highway, which today runs along China’s western borders and initially began as a artery through Aksai Chin linking Tibet and Xinjiang — its construction in the 1950s on land claimed by India triggered tensions eventually leading up to the 1962 war — have been named after the four PLA soldiers and their hometowns in China, the Communist Party-run Global Times reported.

This was done “as a way of commemorating” the soldiers, the newspaper said, adding that they had “become the epitome of Chinese people’s ever-growing patriotic sentiment.”

Aggressive moves

The June 2020 Galwan Valley clash followed the PLA’s aggressive moves along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) starting in April that year. The clash led to the loss of lives of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers, marking the worst violence on the border since 1967. China only announced its fatalities in February 2021, more than eight months later.

Tensions on the LAC remain three years on, with the PLA since dragging its feet in disengaging and de-escalating. Both sides have disengaged at five friction points but are yet to do so in Demchok and Depsang.

Three years on, Chinese state media have continued to highlight the Galwan clash as well as the role of its soldiers, five of whom received honours, four of them posthumously. The bridges are named after the four soldiers, Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan, Wang Zhuoran and Chen Hongjun, and their hometowns.

The PLA Galwan commander Qi Fabao, who was also honoured by the PLA Central Military Commission headed by leader Xi Jinping, last month attended the Communist Party Congress which marked the start of Mr. Xi’s third term, as one of the 2,296 invited party delegates — a politically significant move, observers said, that was meant to send a signal both within China and abroad.