News Analysis: With media blitz, China crafts new narrative on border crisis

Over the previous 24 hours, the Indian Embassy in Beijing has obtained 1000’s of messages in its mentions on Weibo, the Twitter-equivalent utilized in China, greater than it has ever obtained in sooner or later.

Most of them have been indignant and abusive, from Chinese Internet customers expressing their anger following the announcement, made on Friday morning, of the deaths of 4 troopers within the Galwan Valley conflict that happened eight months in the past.

Also learn: LAC standoff | India, China had candid discussions: MEA

The flood of messages, which started on Friday night, was not a lot of a shock. Through the day, state media shops had highlighted the announcement of honours for 5 troopers, 4 awarded posthumously. The names and pictures of the 5 have been being shared extensively on Chinese social media, together with their private tales, all resulting in an outpouring of sentiment.

Carefully crafted narrative

The rigorously crafted narrative, which was buttressed by the state media releasing new footage from the Galwan conflict of June 15, was timed for full impact. The announcement was made a day after China returned to work after a seven-day nationwide vacation for the lunar new 12 months, and 9 days after India and China introduced the start of a disengagement course of.

Also learn: India, China begin 10th round of talks on next phase of disengagement

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) mentioned the announcement, made eight months after the conflict by which 20 Indian troopers misplaced their lives, was aimed toward honouring the troopers and “setting the record straight”, after it accused India of “distorting the truth” and “slandering the Chinese border troops”.

By ready for the disengagement to start, the Chinese authorities prevented a state of affairs the place it could inflame nationwide sentiment in the midst of an ongoing border crisis. The media blitz, which touched a nationwide nerve in China, additionally occupied the main focus of the eye, relatively than any questions concerning the PLA agreeing to withdraw from the north financial institution of Pangong lake and different areas it occupied.

Also learn: Ladakh standoff | India, China finalising phased disengagement plan

The broader intention of the narrative appeared aimed toward underlining the message that the Communist Party had defended China and to painting India because the aggressor — a message that was repeated within the official media.

This is a narrative that turns on its head the genesis of final 12 months’s border crisis, which started with a mass mobilisation of PLA troops alongside the border following a navy train that caught India without warning, and a number of transgressions throughout the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that led India to lose entry to territory and a number of patrolling factors, an uncommon consequence for any supposed aggressor.

Popular social media hashtag

The particulars of the PLA’s withdrawal didn’t get in the way in which of the most well-liked social media hashtag of the day, which mentioned, “Not an inch of our country’s mountains and rivers can be lost.”

That was shared by among the hottest Chinese celebrities together with singer Hua Chenyu, who shared the message together with his 39 million followers. The well-liked pop group TFBoys did the identical to its 21 million followers, including a message of because of the PLA troopers. By the top of Friday, the hashtag had 1.6 billion views and generated greater than 1.7 million posts.

Accounts run by official media shared tales of valour of the 4 troopers who had died: battalion commander Chen Hongjun and troopers Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran. Videos have been additionally shared of the regiment commander Qi Fabao, who sustained a head damage and was honoured as “hero regimental commander for defending the border”, in an earlier confrontation with Indian troopers.

The state media additionally shared posts from their battlefield diaries, together with a be aware from Wang Zhuoran to his dad and mom, written “before he left for the battlefield”, apologising if he couldn’t return to be “a filial son” and promising “to repay their love and care in the afterlife”.

The different messages have been each patriotic and political. “We are the boundary stone of the motherland and every inch of land under our feet is the territory of the motherland,” Xiao Siyuan was quoted as saying. “One should mark accomplishments wherever he is needed by the Communist Party,” was the message from Chen Hongjun, battalion commander.

PLA Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, described the 5 as “iron soldiers nurtured by the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the Xi Jinping’s thinking on strengthening the military”, and as “outstanding representatives of the Chinese military in the new era”.