Nuclear-armed rivals China and India have long had a competed for strategic influence throughout South Asia (archived link).
The world’s two most populous countries fought a border war in 1962, periodically accusing each other of violating their 3,500-kilometer (2,200-mile) border, much of which has never been properly negotiated. That includes areas in India’s Ladakh region, just across from Tibet.
The same photo was shared in posts on X in September 2024 here And here, and Facebook here, alongside claims that Chinese tanks were seen entering Indian territory.
However, there have been no official reports of Chinese tanks entering Indian territory (until September 9, 2024).
‘Military withdrawal’
The two sides have clashed in the past along their shared border, including June 2020when there are at least 20 Indian and four chinese soldiers were killed (archived links here And here).
Both countries deployed tens of thousands of additional troops to the border after a fierce high-altitude border clash in the Galwan Valley, one of the deadliest clashes between the neighbouring countries in decades.
The photo that was mistakenly shared online was released by India’s Ministry of Defence in February 2021 after New Delhi and Beijing reached an agreement to disengage from a portion of their disputed Himalayan border to ease tensions.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament at the time that the deal with Beijing would “substantially restore the situation to what it was before the standoff started”, adding: “we have not conceded anything”.
At the same time, Wu Qian, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, said that the frontline troops of both sides “withdrew in a synchronized and planned manner on February 10.”
The photo is available in AFP archiveswith the caption: “This undated photo, released by the Indian Army on February 16, 2021, shows soldiers and tanks of the People Liberation Army (PLA) during military disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on the India-China border in Ladakh.”
A reverse search on Google also led to the same photo being used in a news article by an Indian media outlet The print published on February 21, 2021 (archived link).
The caption of the photo reads: “Chinese PLA troops march back from Pangong Tso area in Eastern Ladakh | Photo: Indian Army | Representative Image”.
Below is a screenshot of the photo used in the fake news (left) and the same photo from AFP’s archive (right):