– By Vinayak Barot
Ahmedabad: A video, showing some Chinese soldiers singing and others crying in a military vehicle, has triggered both humour and panic in equal measure in different quarters.
The video, shared by Pakistani comedian Zaid Hamid, could enhance tension between China and Taiwan. He remarked: “We Pakistanis support you China. Stay Brave.”
Young soldiers on a bus, seen singing the Chinese military song “Green Flowers in the Army”, have been depicted in emotional outbursts with some even crying.
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炮灰们哭的稀里哗啦！pic.twitter.com/wHLMqFeKIa— 自由的鐘聲🗽 (@waynescene) September 20, 2020
Taking a dig, Taiwanese media reported that “it as a sign of fear (in the People’s Liberation Army or PLA) against the deployment at the border with India amid the on-going tension in Eastern Ladakh, As tensions continue to simmer on the Sino-Indian border, a video surfaced on September 20 showing PLA soldiers crying as if they are being allegedly deployed at the border.”
“In the video, the soldiers can be seen sobbing hysterically as they struggle to sing the PLA song”, the Taiwanese media reported.
The footage was originally posted on the WeChat page of Fuyang City Weekly, but it was soon deleted. The original post shows 10 fresh recruits from Fuyang City’s Yingzhou District in China’s Anhui Province.
Trying to control the damage to the PLA’s morale and reputation, the Chinese media, including the Global Times, clarified “At that time, they were bidding farewell to their parents as they sang the famous military song. They also sang ‘Go home when you celebrate your work’, completely contrary to the mood created by the Taiwanese media.”
China considers Taiwan as a breakaway part of the country, to be reunified by force if necessary. Currently – much like with India – military tension between the two is rapidly escalating.
Further, the Global Times lamented that “the Taiwanese media report had tried to use all kinds of explicit hints to shape the image of the PLA fighters being ‘afraid of war’, when describing all the key information, the author used vague terms such as ‘reported’ and ‘probable’, which seemed very guilty. Many who re-posted the content mocking the PLA were Twitter users from India”
