A list containing the names of 56 Chinese soldiers "killed" during a violent clash with Indian soldiers in the Galwan valley area of Ladakh in the Himalayas last week has been found to be fake. The list which has gone viral on social media has been found to be containing the names of former generals of the PLA, many of whom are long dead and gone.
The bloody Galwan valley incident has heightened tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two nuclear-armed nations. The line demarcates territories controlled by India and China. Hundreds of Indian soldiers have been stationed in the snow-clad mountainous terrain after Chinese troops reportedly entered and set up camps inside the Indian side of the de facto border in April.
Claim Being Made by the 'Fake List'
India lost 20 soldiers in the violent clash which took place during the de-escalation process initiated by India and China, following the intrusion of Chinese troops in the area more than a month ago. While India reported its losses, the Chinese have remained mum on disclosing their causalities.
Days after the incident, a Twitter handle belonging to News Line IFE (@NewsLineIFE) posted a list carrying the names of 56 Chinese soldiers allegedly killed in the incident. It captioned the list: "#BreakingNews : Official notification on #PLA Casualties in #GalwanValley #Ladakh #IndiaChinaFaceOff ! 45 were confirmed before. But now looks like 11 who was in ICU passed away."
Besides carrying the names of the Chinese soldiers, the list also carried text written in Mandarin. When translated, the text read: "We express our deepest condolences to these families, and are firmly committed to protecting the sovereignty of our country." The tweet has been deleted by the user since then.
However, before it was deleted, the list was circulated widely on social media.
Truth behind the List
One of the users questioned the authenticity of the list posted by IFE, stating that the first three names on the list were dead generals of the PLA.
In a report published by Boom Live, a fact checking portal, it was stated that not only did the names on the list belong to 56 former generals of the PLA, but it was also copied from the Wikipedia page called "List of generals of the People's Republic of China".
The first 31 names on the list were of senior Chinese generals from 1955 while the remaining were generals between 1993-94. "While many of the people in the list are now dead, those who are alive are all high-ranking officers who are unlikely to be serving at the border," the outlet reported.
