An old video showing a group of People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers tend to a fellow soldier with a serious head injury, is being shared online claiming it is from the recent clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.
BOOM found that the claim is misleading as the visuals are from the deadly June 2020 clash between the two sides in the Galwan Valley, Ladakh.
Indian and Chinese troops clashed in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh on the intervening night of December 8-9 2022 with both sides beating each other up with sticks and canes reported the Indian Express on December 13, 2022. Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament on December 13, that there were injuries on both sides and claimed that there are no fatalities or serious casualties on the Indian side.
Several old videos of clashes between the two sides are circulating on social media, following the news of the latest skirmish.
The 10-second video shows a group of Chinese soldiers attending to a soldier whose head is badly injured. The video is being shared with the caption when translated from Hindi reads, "Somebody convey the condition of their Chinese soldiers to Richa Chadha...!"
(Original text in Hindi - कोई ऋचा चड्ढा तक पहुँचा दे उनके चीनी सैनिकों का हाल...!)
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The same video is being widely shared with the misleading claim on Facebook also.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from June 2020 during the Galwan Valley clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers and is not recent from Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh on December 9, 2022.
We found that the viral video is from a longer video that was posted by a Chinese state media outlet.
In June 2020, there was an escalation in tensions between the two sides at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Galwan Valley in Ladakh on the night of June 15, 2020, with 20 Indian soldiers losing their lives and several others suffering injuries.
Chinese government affiliated channel China Global Television Network (CGTN) posted footage of the clashes with the caption, 'The truth about border clashes with foreign troops in 2020' on February 20, 2021.
At the 1.48 minutes timestamp, we can see the same visuals as in the viral video.
The caption along with the video read, "#China has revealed the truth on the #border clashes with India, and this will help people understand the truth and the rights and wrongs of these events. During the border conflict between China and India in June last year, four Chinese military officers and soldiers died and one regimental commander was seriously injured. #India"
The media outlet identifies the injured Chinese soldier as regimental commander Qi Fabao.
Col. Qi was selected by China as the torchbearer for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022. China's selection of Colonel Qi angered the Indian government which had then stated that the top diplomat at its embassy in Beijing would not be attending the opening or closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.
The same shot in the viral video of an injured Chinese soldier can be seen in this article syndicated from AP of photos taken from footage put out by Chinese media CCTV channel.
The photo caption reads, "Soldiers bandage the head of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) regimental commander Qi Fabao as Indian and Chinese troops face off in the Galwan Valley."
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