The India-China dispute that led to the death of at least 20 Indian army soldiers has given rise to social media speculations on the number of Chinese casualties. Beijing is yet to release any figure yet the rumours that started with five, now put the number of Chinese deaths at 56.

Several Twitter accounts have shared the alleged list of Chinese soldiers who died in the Galwan Valley.

Twitter account New Line IFE also shared the ‘list’ and later took down the tweet.

Fact-check

News Line IFE has emerged as a prominent handle spreading misinformation around the number of Chinese casualties. The handle first came into notice after several Indian journalists claimed that five Chinese soldiers were killed based on a tweet by a reporter associated with China-based Global Times. The reporter, whose source was News Line IFE, later retracted her tweet and Global Times put out a statement claiming that the channel never released any figure on Chinese casualties. News Line IFE had also promoted false claims that 30 and subsequently, 43 Chinese soldiers died fighting Indian troops.

A Google search of some of the names out of the 56 currently viral, takes one to the Wikipedia page ‘List of generals of the People’s Republic of China’. The names have been lifted from the page in the exact order.

This was earlier fact-checked by Boomlive.

A list of Chinese soldiers who ‘died’ in Galwan Valley was therefore created by lifting names of the generals of the PLA from a Wikipedia page.

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About the Author

Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.