Complete De-escalation Yet to Occur on India-China Border; News Reports False: Satellite Imagery Expert

This video frame grab taken from footage recorded in mid-June 2020 and released by China Central Television (CCTV) on Feb. 20, 2021, shows Chinese (foreground) and Indian soldiers (R, background) during an incident where troops from both countries clashed in the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley, in the Karakoram Mountains in the Himalayas. The two sides again clashed on Dec. 9, 2022 in Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh leading to injuries. AFP Photo/China Central Television

NEW DELHI—Recent media reports of a complete de-escalation on the India-China border in Eastern Ladakh are false as Chinese troops have not retreated from the friction points last created post May 2020, when the conflict between the two armies escalated, according to an Indian satellite imagery expert.

“Latest images do not indicate any significant troop or equipment reduction by CCP China’s PLA [People’s Liberation Army],” retired Col. Vinayak Bhat, a satellite imagery expert and an Indian military intelligence veteran, told The Epoch Times in an email. “The media hype on reduced threats or de-escalation by PLA are incorrect.”