Claim: Two images show Chinese military tanks entering India.
Fact: The first image shows Russian military personnel conducting adaptive training for a joint military drill with Chinese forces in August 2021, while the second image shows the Chinese military disengaging from the India-China border in Ladakh in February 2021.
Images of military tanks entering India went viral on X (formerly Twitter) on 31 August and 1 September 2024, around the same time Chinese troops appeared to run into Indian soldiers as they crossed the India-China border. A video (archive) of the soldiers (found online as early as 20 August 2024) refusing to discuss the actual demarcations of the border and chalking off their encounter as a possible navigation error has since gone viral on social media. Online users made note of the awkward humour of the situation.
An X user then shared these two images as evidence of Chinese military forces crossing the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and entering India.
Source: XINHUANET.
Source: AFP.
Fact or Fiction?
By running the two pictures through a reverse image search, Soch Fact Check found that both of them can be found online as early 2021.
The first image is from August 2021, and it shows a joint military exercise between Russian and Chinese forces. This image has no connection to India. This is corroborated by various news outlets like the Asia Times (archive), South China Morning Post (archive), and China Military Online (archive).
These outlets feature similar captions for the image, saying that it shows Russian personnel conducting a training for a joint drill between Chinese and Russian forces. This image was sourced from XINHUANET (archive), which describes the image as, “Russian military personnel conduct adaptive training for a joint military drill on Aug. 2, 2021.”
The second image is from February 2021. Though it claimed to show Chinese military forces advancing past the India-China border, it actually displays Chinese forces disengaging from the border in Ladakh. News outlets like The Wall Street Journal (archive), The Independent (archive), The Times of India (archive), and The ASEAN Post (archive) describe the photo similarly in their captions. The image itself was sourced from AFP (archive), which says, “This undated handout photograph released by the Indian Army on February 16 2021, shows People Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers and tanks during military disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at the India-China border in Ladakh.”
Virality
On X, we found the images here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The images of Chinese tanks invading India are outdated. Both images are from 2021. One of them shows a Russian-Chinese military exercise, and the other shows Chinese forces disengaging from the India-China border in Ladakh.
Background image in cover photo: @NavCom24
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