Chinese government planned Galwan Valley incident: Top US panel

New Delhi, Dec 02: A top US Congress mandated panel has said that it was the Chinese government that planned the Galwan Valley attack in June.

In the Galwan Valley incident, 20 Indian soldiers were martyred while an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were either killed or went missing.

The report of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that some evidence suggested that the Chinese government had planned the incident potentially including the possibility.

The report also said that the proximate cause of the clash appeared to be India's construction of a strategic access road to support troops stationed at the border areas.

The report also highlighted how several weeks prior to the clash, Chinese Defence Minister had encouraged Beijing to use fighting to promote stability.

Further it was also pointed out that an editorial in the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, Global Times warned that India would suffer a devastating blow to its trade and economic ties with China, if it got involved in the US-China rivalry.

"Beijing ramped up its multiyear coercion campaign against its neighbors, provoking military or paramilitary standoffs with countries from Japan to India and much of Southeast Asia.," the report also said.