A day after the media reported that India had handed over bodies of 16 Chinese soldiers to the People's Liberation Army (PLA), China on Monday for the first time admitted that it lost "less than 20" troops during the face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh last week.

Until now, even as New Delhi had officially announced that 20 of its soldiers were killed in a clash with the PLA in Ladakh's Galwan Valley, Beijing had remained tight-lipped about its casualties. The Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Community Party regime in Beijing, in a piece quoting "Chinese experts" on Monday said that "the reason why China did not release the number" of its casualties, is that China "wants to avoid an escalation."