Former Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane writes that Chinese leader Xi Jinping won’t forget June 16 any time soon as China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) suffered heavy casualties for the first time in two decades.

India’s former Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane in his memoir 'Four Stars of Destiny' has shed light on India’s border tensions with China throughout his tenure and how it took India and the Indian Army to make China realise that “enough is enough.”

The 28th CoAS recounted the night time skirmishes and ensuing tensions of the 2020 Galwan Valley clash, which pushed the two Asian giants on the verge of fighting a full-blown war.

"It took India and the Indian Army to show to the world that enough is enough and to challenge the neighbourhood bully," the general writes.

‘Jinping Will Not Forget’

The general writes that Chinese leader Xi Jinping won’t forget June 16 any time soon as China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) suffered heavy casualties for the first time in two decades at the hands of their Indian counterparts along the Himalayas.

"June 16 is (Chinese President) Xi Jinping's birthday. This is not a day he will forget any time soon. For the first time in over two decades, the Chinese and the PLA had suffered fatal casualties," Naravane writes.

He also added that the day of the clash was one of the saddest days" of his entire career.

Naravane’s tenure, from December 2019 to April 2022, was largely marked by increased Chinese hostility on the border and India’s rapid response to enhance its own capabilities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de-facto border between India and Tibet.

What Triggered The Galwan Clashes?

According to Naravane, the clashes occurred after the PLA refused to vacate the Patrolling Point-14 (PP-14) position.

"At PP-14, however, whenever we asked the PLA to remove their tents, they kept changing their stance. From 'some more time was needed', to 'we will check with our superiors', to it 'being beyond the mandate of the talks'.”

To counter the Chinese side, the Indian Army responded by erecting their own tents at PP-14, to which the PLA responded violently.

"Thereafter, it became a free-for-all. With darkness setting in, both sides rushed in additional troops and a see-saw engagement continued throughout the night," he writes.

Casualties

General Naravane writes in his memoir that the PLA paid a handsome price for its misadventure on the night of June 16.

“Losing 20 men in a day was hard to bear," he writes.

He mentioned that while China admitted that only five of its soldiers were killed, it was clear that they too “suffered substantially".

"Our men who were in Chinese hands had been kept out in the open and they had seen several bodies being fished out of the river. Whenever that happened, they were subjected to a fresh round of beatings," Naravane writes.