The soldiers families are also prohibited from erecting gravestones as the Chinese government fears that images of gravestones of its fallen PLA soldiers could embarrass the CCP and stoke anti-Government sentiments if shared on social media.
As per the assessment of US Intelligence agencies, XI Jinping’s Government is pressuring the families of soldiers who were killed by the Indian Army during the Galwan classes in June not to conduct burials and in-person funeral ceremonies. This is an attempt by the CCP to cover up the entire episode to its own citizens and to the outside world which Beijing itself considers a blunder, reports US News.
The news report says that Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs has told families of those who died in the Galwan Valley clash that they must forgo traditional burial ceremonies and cremate the soldiers’ remains. They have also been instructed that funeral services should be conducted remotely and not in person. The orders to conduct the funerals in a clandestine way has been confirmed by the US Intelligence sources, says the US News report.
The move to cover-up its failure to sense the Indian response to its misadventure and the bloody nose it received by the Indian Army is seen as a blunder within the government. In order to escape the embarrassment caused to the government and President Xi, the Chinese government has resorted to such dirty tactics. The Chinese government is using the threat of Corona infection as a pretext in public to deny the funerals for its fallen soldiers.
No proper burial ceremony and funeral for these soldiers means that the families cannot erect gravestones or inscriptions over their graves. Chinese government reportedly fears that images of gravestones of its fallen PLA soldiers could further stoke anti-Government sentiments if they are spread on Chinese or international social media. The US Intelligence assessment concludes that the new rules are a part of a deliberate effort by Beijing to undermine public awareness and erase any enduring reminders of its loss during the Galwan clashes.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has on many previous occasions used such incidents to build support for itself in the country. The deadly incidents like the 2001 collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. spy plane near the southern Hainan Island or the accidental U.S. bombing in 1999 of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, were exploited by the CCP to build strong nationalistic support at home.
But experts believe that the loss it faced in the Galwan Clashes were so big that the CCP does not want to embarrass itself in front of its citizens and the world. Hence, any news about the Galwan clashes have almost disappeared from Chinese media and official statements. US Intelligence sources see this as an indication that China did not intend for the June encounter to escalate and result in a huge loss of face and men.
However, China’s aim to hide the information from its own citizens has failed badly with Chinese citizens lambasting its government for not providing a decent funeral for its fallen soldiers. In June, The Guardian reported that Chinese citizens were sharing pictures of funeral processions for Indian troops on their social media and wondered why their countrymen didn’t receive similar honors.
With this inhuman diktat, the Chinese government is also denying the families of the soldiers and their next generations from visiting the graves of their ancestors and pay respect to their loved ones.
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