Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Discussions around the December 9 Indo-China clash in Arunachal Pradesh continue to dictate social media trends in India, with users sharing many unverified images and visuals allegedly showing the standoff. One such image is being widely shared online allegedly showing a confrontation between the Indian army and PLA in Arunachal Pradesh.
Links to such posts can be found here, here and here.
Another image showcasing an Indian army soldier seemingly kicking his Chinese counter is also going viral on social media platforms. Users who have shared the image, addressed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and wrote, “Indian Army is best Army in world. India can very well protect Indian land from China. Hope latest video of Indian soldiers thrashing Chinese have reached you. Enjoy it, and stop doing politics on this matter. (sic)”
Links to such posts can be found here and here.
Newschecker has found that both images were unrelated to the recent standoff in Tawang and are being shared out of context.
Also Read: Old Videos Showing Standoff Between Indian and Chinese Army Shared As Recent
Fact Check/Verification
Newschecker attempted to verify the authenticity of both images.
Image 1
A Google reverse image search on the viral photograph led us to a report by the Economic Times, dated February 21, 2021, titled ‘Galwan clash: China shares dramatic video of mountain clash with India troops.’
Displaying a cropped version of the viral image, the report stated, “Dramatic footage released by Chinese state media purportedly shows deadly clashes between troops at the Indian border last year — a rare insight into violence at the tense, remote frontier.”
Further, a keyword search for “China,” “Galwan clash,” & “video release” on Google yielded a video uploaded on the official YouTube channel of NDTV on February 20, 2021. The description of the video read, “Hundreds of Indian and Chinese soldiers are seen in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in a new video of last year’s border faceoff tweeted by Chinese state media. The video showing the confrontation between Indian and Chinese soldiers in June last year comes after China officially acknowledged it also suffered casualties in the violent faceoff, and named four officers and soldiers who died in the border clash. India believes over 30 Chinese soldiers were killed in Galwan. Twenty Indian soldiers laid down their lives for the country in the clash.”
Around 46 seconds into the video, we spotted the same frame corresponding to the viral image being circulated in context to the Tawang clashes.
In February 2021, the Chinese state broadcaster had released a video to show the“Indo-China Galwan clash” of June 2020, which was reported by several news outlets back then. Such reports can be seen here, here and here.
We could thus conclude that the viral image has been taken out from a video released by China in February 2021, and is not related to the recent clashes in Tawang.
Result: Partly False
Image 2
We conducted a Google reverse image search on the viral photograph which threw up a report by the Economic Times, dated October 14, 2015, titled ‘India, China kick off joint anti-terror exercise ‘Hand-in-Hand 2015’.
The article carried several images from the India-China combined military exercise. It featured the viral photograph with the caption, “Members of Indian and Chinese contingents displaying their martial art skills.
Journalist Shiv Aroor had also tweeted the viral photograph on October 13, 2015, with the caption, “Great shots of Indian and Chinese army soldiers at joint exercise #HandInHand in Kunming, China today.”
In a report dated October 22, 2015, NDTV also featured the viral photograph with the caption, “During ‘Hand-in-Hand’ exercises, not just with guns, Indian and Chinese soldiers also displayed their skills in martial arts.”
Thus, we understand that a photograph showing Indian and Chinese troops participating in a Combined Military Training Exercise “Hand in Hand 2015” at Kunming Military Academy, Yunnan, China is being shared in the recent context.
Result: Missing Context
Sources
Report By The Economic Times, Dated February 21, 2021
YouTube By NDTV, Dated February 20, 2021
Report By The Economic Times, Dated October 14, 2015
Tweet By Shiv Aroor, Dated October 13, 2015
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
