A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) allegedly shows Chinese troops chanting “Jai Shri Ram” during the troop withdrawal at Ladakh. In the viral video, Indian soldiers teach Chinese soldiers how to pronounce the phrase, and they chant it together. This video is shared in the context of India and China recently agreeing to end the standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to ease tensions at the Indo-China border (here, here, and here). External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar addressed the media about this issue at an event on 21 October 2024 (here and here). Reports (here, here, and here). indicate that India and China began withdrawing their forces from Eastern Ladakh on 25 October 2024. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: A video shows Chinese troops chanting “Jai Shri Ram” during the recent agreement between India and China to end the standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Fact: This video is not recent, it has been on the internet since January 2024. The viral video is unrelated to the recent withdrawal of Indian and Chinese forces from Eastern Ladakh following the agreement between India and China. The same video first went viral in January 2024 during the opening ceremony of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to several social media posts (here here, here, here, here, and here) (archived link) from January 2024 featuring the same viral video. However, none of these posts provided any information about this video.
A relevant Google keyword search led us to several media reports (here, here, and here) that featured the same viral video back in January 2024. According to these reports, “The video went viral during the Ayodhya Ram Mandir inauguration, but no official information or statement has been provided by either the Chinese or Indian Army.” Based on this, we can conclude that the viral video has no connection to the recent withdrawal of Indian and Chinese forces from Eastern Ladakh under the new peace agreement between India and China.
Several reports (here and here) suggest that the video dates back to Diwali 2023 and was filmed in the Chepji-Chumar region of Ladakh, not January 2024. While we cannot independently verify the exact date or location of the video, it is clear that this viral clip is not recent.
To sum up, an old video of Chinese troops chanting “Jai Shri Ram” is falsely shared as the video taken after the recent India-China agreement to end the LAC standoff
