Clash between India-China troops in Yangtse

Why clash over Tawang area?

• It is one of the more serious dispute points between India and China in the overall border question.
• Tawang is the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama and an important pilgrimage centre for Tibetan Buddhists. 
• The 14th Dalai Lama took refuge in Tawang after he crossed over from Tibet to India in 1959, spending some days in the monastery there before proceeding further.
• Within Tawang, there are three “agreed areas” of differing Indian and Chinese perceptions of the LAC. 
• Yangtse, which is about 25 km from Tawang town, north of the Lungroo grazing ground, is one of these areas. 
• As a result, it has been the site of regular “physical contact” between the Indian Army and the PLA, especially as the high ground is on the Indian side, giving it a commanding view of the Chinese side.

• In October 2021, patrol parties of the PLA and the Indian Army in the area came face to face in Yangtse, leading to a scuffle. No one was hurt. A similar incident was reported in 2016.
• The December 2022 incident is the most serious encounter between the two sides in recent years in this sector, and the first one resulting in injuries since the Galwan clash, in which 20 soldiers on the Indian side and an unspecified number of Chinese troops lost their lives.
• The incident came days after China expressed objection to Operation Yudhabhyas, an India-US joint military exercise at Auli in the Uttarakhand hills, claiming it was a violation of 1993 and 1996 border agreements.