Indian and Chinese forces scuffled near the disputed Himalayan border on Dec. 9 when the latter attempted to breach Indian territory, resulting in minor casualties on both sides, India’s defense minister said on Tuesday.

China attempted to "unilaterally change the status quo" by crossing the line of actual control (LAC) at the Tawang Sector in India's northeastern territory of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders southern China, according to India's Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.

The LAC is an imaginary line of demarcation between the Indian-controlled territory and the Chinese-controlled sector.

“The ensuing face-off led to a physical scuffle in which the Indian Army heroically prevented the [People’s Liberation Army] from transgressing into our land and compelled them to return to their posts,” Singh told parliament.

On the Indian side, no fatalities or significant injuries were reported. The minister did not specify the number of injured soldiers in the conflict.

Singh stated that India's commander met with his Chinese counterpart on December 11 and urged that Chinese troops "cease such actions and preserve peace and tranquility along the boundary."

The issue was also being relayed through diplomatic channels, he added.

According to the Global Times, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters that the border situation is "usually steady" and asked India to adhere to "the relevant agreements" between the two countries.

The scuffle was the first between the two countries since violent battles in June 2020 when Indian and Chinese troops were embroiled in hand-to-hand combat in Ladakh, which led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese personnel.

Joint US-India Drills

The border clash occurred just days after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) administration denounced India's and the United States' combined military exercises in Uttarakhand, approximately 100 kilometers from the LAC border.

The CCP stated that the joint U.S.-India drills "violated the spirit of relevant agreements signed by China and India in 1993 and 1996" and did not contribute to the establishment of confidence between the two countries.

“China has conveyed concerns to the Indian side about the military exercise,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters on Nov. 30.

The purpose of the U.S.-India military exercises, known as Yudh Abhyas, which began on November 19 was to improve interoperability and share expertise in peacekeeping and disaster relief operations.

Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson for India's external affairs ministry, responded that the joint exercises had nothing to do with the agreements cited by Beijing. Instead, he invited the CCP to reflect on its own violations of the agreements.

"India exercises with whomever it likes, and it does not grant third countries a veto on these issues," Bagchi stated during a news event on 1 December, according to local sources.

Disputed Border

Tawang, on the border with Bhutan and China, isn’t new to Chinese intrusion. A sinologist told The Epoch Times that Chinese interest in the Himalayan regions of India is linked to its broader sinicization campaign targeting Tibetan Buddhism and specifically to its “reincarnation politics” aimed at controlling the institutions of Tibetan Buddhism on the border, in locations that could be the birthplace of the next Dalai Lama.

The 340-year-old Tawang monastery and the birthplace of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, are located in Tawang (1680–1706).

Frank Lehberger, a senior member with the India-based think tank Usanas Foundation, said that Tibetans today believe that if it continues free of CCP intervention, this location could again be the birthplace of a future Dalai Lama; consequently, the CCP seeks to control and even demolish the monastery.

“A possible Chinese purpose in such a possible ‘reincarnation war’ could be to destroy or conquer this key monastery in Tawang, in order to prevent that a future Dalai Lama would be discovered or taught in this holy place,” Lehberger said in a study published on the Usanas website last year.

"The so-called geopolitics of reincarnation is the primary reason why, since 2008, the PRC has increasingly reinforced its contentious claim to Tawang and its historic monastery,"

According to him, the Chinese regime's State Administration of Religious Affairs and United Front Work Department have long-term plans to thwart any future search and identification efforts for the next Dalai Lama.

"In order to anticipate such a Chinese action, H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama once prophesied that his reincarnation would arise in a free nation. This could suggest that a future Fifteenth Dalai Lama could very possibly come from India's ethnic Tibetan communities in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh in the Himalayas," Lehberger added, noting that these Indian states are home to Tibetan-speaking people of indigenous origin.

This dispute over the politics of reincarnation could eventually lead to a border war with India, akin to the current skirmishes in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, he claimed.