Nuclear-armed rivals China and India have lengthy competed for strategic affect throughout South Asia (archived hyperlink).
The world’s two most populous nations fought a border conflict in 1962 and have periodically accused one another of violating their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) frontier, giant components of which have by no means been correctly agreed. That features areas in India’s Ladakh area, simply reverse Tibet.
The identical picture was shared in posts in September 2024 on X right here and right here, and Fb right here, alongside claims it confirmed Chinese language tanks coming into Indian territory.
However there have been no official studies as of September 9, 2024 of Chinese language tanks coming into Indian territory.
‘Navy disengagement’
The 2 sides have clashed alongside their shared border prior to now, together with June 2020, when no less than 20 Indian and 4 Chinese language troopers have been killed (archived hyperlinks right here and right here).
Each international locations despatched tens of hundreds of additional troops to the border after the brutal, high-altitude border battle within the Galwan Valley — one of many deadliest clashes between the neighbours in current many years.
The picture falsely shared on-line was in actual fact launched by the Indian Ministry of Defence in February 2021, after New Delhi and Beijing reached an settlement to drag again from a part of their contested Himalayan border to ease tensions.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed parliament on the time the settlement with Beijing would “considerably restore the scenario to that present previous to graduation of the stand-off”, including “we now have not conceded something”.
Individually, China’s defence ministry spokesman, Wu Qian, mentioned frontline troops from each side “started to disengage in a synchronised and deliberate manner on February 10”.
The picture is obtainable in AFP’s archives, the place it’s captioned: “This undated handout {photograph} launched by the Indian Military on February 16, 2021 reveals Individuals Liberation Military (PLA) troopers and tanks throughout army disengagement alongside the Line of Precise Management (LAC) on the India-China border in Ladakh.”
A reverse picture search on Google additionally led to the identical picture utilized in a information article by Indian media outlet The Print revealed on February 21, 2021 (archived hyperlink).
The picture is captioned, “Chinese language PLA troops march again from the Pangong Tso space in japanese Ladakh | Photograph: Indian Military | Representational picture”.
Beneath is a screenshot comparability between the picture used within the false publish (left) and the identical picture from AFP’s archive (proper):
