For the first Time, the Chinese Communist Party has acknowledged casualties in the India-China conflict, and a picture of a soldier’s tombstone that was earlier “debunked” has been confirmed as a real photo. (Web Photo)
Eight months after the bloody clashes on the India-China border, the two sides have begun to lift the standoff. For the first time, the Chinese Communist Party has acknowledged its own casualties while promoting its “victory. An earlier photo of a tombstone of a fallen soldier was published in the official media, then “debunked,” but now it is being used again for “positive propaganda.
On February 19, the Chinese Communist Party’s military newspaper published an article stating that during the Sino-Indian border clash in June last year, the commander Qi Fabao was seriously wounded and the battalion commander Chen Hongjun, along with officers and soldiers Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuo Ran, were killed, one of whom died on the way to cross the river. The article describes the “heroic deeds” of the five men, and says they have all been honored by the authorities.
The article in the military newspaper reminded netizens of the photo of Chen Xiangrong’s tombstone that surfaced online last year.
After the border clashes in mid-June last year, the Indian side announced that 20 officers and soldiers were killed in action. The Chinese Communist Party has been tight-lipped about casualties on its side. But the tombstone of 19-year-old soldier Chen Xiangrong began circulating online, showing that he died on the Sino-Indian border and was posthumously awarded first-class merit.
Many netizens reposted the photo at the time. China Chang’an, the official microblog of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, also forwarded the photo and wrote an article of condolence at one point. However, a large number of “netizens” soon began to question the authenticity of the photo, or asked for its deletion on the grounds that it was “related to national security” and “don’t stimulate the Family anymore”. The “China Chang’an” network then deleted the post.
Netizens were asked to delete the post after reposting the picture. (Web screenshot)
At the same time, some self-media with suspected official backgrounds posted articles to “technically analyze” the photos of the tombstones, trying to prove that the photos were “forged”.
However, many netizens did not buy it, accusing the Chinese Communist Party of treating the lives of soldiers like grass, and the Indian authorities of mourning fallen soldiers in a high profile manner, while in China, even a photo of a tombstone of a fallen soldier was censored because it was a “state secret”.
At a regular press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on February 19, a reporter questioned why it took eight months for the authorities to announce the casualties of the Sino-Indian conflict. Spokesperson Hua Chunying claimed that it was to maintain “a high degree of restraint”, reflecting “the temperament and responsibility of a big country”. This statement once again triggered netizens to troll.
Although the Chinese Communist Party revealed its own casualties for the first time, it was still questioned for hiding something. When India and China announced last week that they would end the standoff at Bangong Lake, Russian state news agency TASS revealed that 45 Chinese soldiers had died last year.
On June 15 last year, brutal armed fighting broke out between India and China in the Garhwan Valley area of Ladakh. Indian media reported that the Chinese army had been planning for several days to launch a surprise attack on Indian troops at night, using spiked wolfsbane and other murderous weapons, resulting in the death of 20 Indian troops, many of whom froze to death after being seriously injured. The Indians then launched a counterattack, which also resulted in a large number of Chinese casualties.
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