By Stephen Hutcheon, Mark Doman and Alex Palmer
In the language of geopolitics it’s known as salami slicing, a tactic used to covertly snatch disputed lands, sliver by territorial sliver.
And on the border between China and India in the remote reaches of the Himalayas, that’s exactly what Beijing stands accused of doing — incrementally extending its footprint.
Tensions between the two Asian neighbours erupted last month at a frontier post in the Galwan Valley more than 4,000 metres above sea level — a no-man’s-land in the middle of nowhere.
When an Indian army patrol attempted to tear down temporary structures erected by the Chinese military on terrain claimed by India, it set off a brutal six-hour melee in sub-zero temperatures.
No firearms or explosives were used, as per a long-standing convention designed to avoid a serious escalation between the two nuclear-armed powers. Instead, soldiers battered each other with sticks, stones and improvised studded clubs into the early hours of the morning.
Daylight revealed a staggering toll of dead and injured. Twenty Indians, including the commanding officer, succumbed to their wounds or to hypothermia and another 76 were injured. And there was an unknown number of Chinese casualties.