Old photo falsely shared as coffins of Chinese soldiers killed in the 2020 border dispute with India

 

 

Screenshot of the tweet. 

 

News Brief 

Since May 2020, China and India have been in a state of constant confrontation along their shared border in Pangong Lake and Galwan Valley. Armed conflicts in the regions broke out and soldiers on both sides were killed. On Feb. 19, 2021, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed at its regular press briefing that during the border conflict with India in June 2020, four of Chinese soldiers were killed in a clash and a regiment commander was seriously injured.

A photo shared Nov. 22, 2022, on Twitter, claims to show coffins of the Chinese soldiers killed in the border dispute with India in 2020. Covered with the flag of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, on each of the coffins, there was a portrait of the deceased soldiers in the Army’s green uniforms. The caption, written in simplified Chinese, translates as, “Photos of the conflict between China and India across Pangong Lake have been released, proving that the Chinese military has suffered heavy casualties.”

As of the publication of this report, the tweet had been retweeted 156 times, 7 times with quote, and had received 321 likes. Similar claims have been circulating on social media here and here.

Fact-checking

A reverse image search has found an album published Dec. 8, 2010, on Sina Photo, a Chinese stock images website. According to the album’s title, it shows bodies of the fifteen deceased soldiers killed in a wildfire battle in China’s southwestern Sichuan province. The photos in the album were published on Chinanews.com, an online news website operated by the state news agency China News Service. The photos on Chinanews.com correspond to the Twitter photo in many details. Therefore, the Chinanews.com photos and the Twitter photo show the same scene taken from different angles. As similar photos have been circulating online since at least 2010, the photo shared on Twitter does not show coffins of the Chinese soldiers who died in the 2020 China-Indian border dispute in Pangong Lake area.

According to a news article published by Chinanews.com, a mountain fire broke out at around 12:20 Dec. 5, 2010, in Daofu County, Ganze Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province, killing a total of 22 firefighters, soldiers and citizens. On Dec. 7, 2010, the 15 soldiers who died in the wildfire battle were posthumously honored as martyrs. Their coffins arrived in Kangding city, Ganze Tibetan autonomous prefecture, where a mourning hall was opened at Kangding Gymnasium to receive condolences from the public.

Comparison of the photos on Chinanews.com (top) and the Twitter photo (bottom).

The high-definition photos released by Chinanews.com show the portraits placed on the coffins and the names of the deceased, including Wang Yuanpeng, Chen Cheng, Chen Tao. All of them were on the list of the 15 soldiers who died in the Sichuan wildfire.

To sum up, the Twitter photo corresponds with other photos taken from similar angles, which have been circulating online since at least 2010. Therefore, they have nothing to do with the border conflict between China and India in 2020. The photo shared on Twitter actually shows the scene of people paying their respects to the soldiers who died in the Sichuan wildfire in December 2010.