Overseas commenter among those targeted by China for social media posts about ‘hero’ deaths at India border

At least seven people fall foul of 2018 law banning the diminishing and defaming of ‘heroes and martyrs’

One person implied that soldiers killed in border clash were not heroes, while another said loss of rescue team indicated more died than China has revealed

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China’s state broadcaster CCTV released footage that it said showed June’s border clash between Chinese (foreground) and Indian troops. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:47pm, 22 Feb 2021Updated: 2:15pm, 23 Feb 2021

Several Chinese citizens have been detained for making what the authorities deemed to be inappropriate remarks about soldiers who died in a clash at the China-India border last year.

At least seven people have been punished or investigated, including one individual outside China, under a Chinese law passed three years ago that banned acts diminishing “heroes and martyrs”. The law has been criticised as being a means of silencing people for questioning the official narrative.

It came after China revealed on Friday that four soldiers from its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had been killed and one seriously wounded during a bloody hand-to-hand battle with Indian troops on the countries’ disputed border last June.

State media outlets have released videos propagating the soldiers’ loyalty and sacrifice, while the PLA has described them as heroes and blamed India for the casualties, saying it broke border agreements.

A 19-year-old man surnamed Wang was the only person known to have been targeted for comments he made overseas, after his remarks on the Twitter-like Chinese platform Weibo, which were reported to police in the southwestern Chongqing region on Sunday, were deemed “slanderous and mocking heroic border officers”.

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