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India-China border tension sparks anti-China protests in India
Tensions along the India-China border remain high after a clash in June in which at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
As the two countries continue to talk about the disconnect, misleading content is being shared on social media about the standoff.
We have taken a look at some of them.
Claim: Chinese soldiers sent to the border are crying
Verdict: Misleading video taken out of context
This video shared by Twitter users was picked up in September by some Taiwanese media outlets, then went viral in India, with users mocking Chinese soldiers for crying that they were allegedly being sent to the border.
It has been viewed over 300,000 times and even picked up by major Indian media outlets like Zee News TV channel.
The recruits are in a minibus, singing a popular Mandarin military song about nostalgia. The red and yellow sashes worn by the soldiers bear the motto “Join the army with honor.”
But there is no evidence that we have found that they are being shipped to the Indian border.
Chinese media say the soldiers are new army recruits from the Yingzhou District in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, and they were excited after saying goodbye to their relatives.
A local news outlet posted on the Chinese messaging app WeChat on September 15 that the soldiers were heading to a military barracks, mentioning that five of them had volunteered to serve in the Tibet region.
- Explanation of the border dispute between India and China
But he did not mention that they were sent to the border or the recent tensions with India.
And on September 22, the Chinese edition of the state-run Global Times newspaper picked up the story. He accused the Taiwanese media of “lying” by linking the image of the new recruits “saying goodbye to their parents with tears” with the border situation between China and India.
Claim: video shows Indian soldiers dancing to music from Chinese speakers
Verdict: Old video that predates any mention of speakers on the border
On September 16, there were reports in the Indian and Chinese media of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army installing loudspeakers along the border and playing Punjabi music to “distract” the Indian soldiers.
Media reports had said that the loudspeakers were placed by the Chinese army in an area under surveillance 24 hours a day by Indian soldiers.
Both Indian and Chinese media picked up this story citing army sources, but no images or videos were shared in these reports and the Indian military has not confirmed that this has happened.
However, Indian social media users have been sharing old videos of Indian soldiers dancing to Punjabi music, which we found predating any reports of loudspeakers along the border.
In a viral video shared in September, five soldiers are seen dancing to a Punjabi musical number. It has had over 88,000 views and the user claims it shows the India-China border in Ladakh.
However, a reverse image search shows that the video dates back to July this year.
And while the exact location of the video is difficult to establish, news reports at the time suggest that it was from the India-Pakistan border and not the India-China border as claimed.
Claim: China has a large speaker that plays very loud music that has injured Indian soldiers
Verdict: there is no evidence that this device is being used to play music at the border
This is a variation on the previous statement about the speakers, with a Chinese Twitter user sharing a video of a large device that they say is used to play extremely loud music in Indian camps, making some Indian soldiers sick and injured .
The video has been viewed over 200,000 times and even appeared on an Indian news channel with the same claim.
The now-viral clip is actually from a March 2016 YouTube video of a Chinese-made mobile warning siren, produced by a company that makes emergency safety equipment.
It shows a large 4.6 ton rotating siren used for situations such as natural disasters or other emergencies for civilians, according to the product description on the company’s website.
It is not a loudspeaker for playing music and it is unclear whether the Chinese military is using this warning siren at the border.
Furthermore, there have been no confirmed reports of eardrum injuries to Indian soldiers in this area.
Claim: A bus accident involving Indian security personnel is linked to border tensions
Verdict: Misleading since the accident occurred but not in the border area
A Twitter user from China posted a video on September 21, stating that India cannot meet with China midway through the border talks because “it has to prevent its troops from committing suicide.”
The video showed part of a military bus submerged in a river with soldiers standing nearby, and the text refers to what it calls the “deadly suicide attempts in Ladakh” by the Indian army.
The video has been viewed almost 5,000 times.
It is a genuine video, but it is not from the India-China border. He is from the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, where a bus full of Indian security personnel fell into a flooded river in the Bijapur district in September.
Indian media reported on this incident at the time, showing the bus overturned and saying there were no casualties.
With additional research from BBC Monitoring
