New Delhi: Right before Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang meets with his counterpart from India, S Jaishankar, on 2 March, the People’s Liberation Army has amplified their military propaganda on social media.
A video was posted that featured the PLA conducting training with their Dongfeng vehicles and light tanks.
The Dongfeng is China’s version of the US Army’s High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV). According to Aadil Brar, a China scholar, this video marked the return of PLA military propaganda post the Chinese New Year.
After a lull during the Chinese new year, the PLA media is active again. Official media put out a new video of the vehicle training with Dongfeng vehicles and light tanks. pic.twitter.com/DXQEdODS70
— Aadil Brar (@aadilbrar) March 1, 2023
Jaishankar and Qin Gang are expected to meet on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on 2 March. They are likely to discuss the protracted standoff at the Line of Actual Control, which is now nearing its third year.
Significantly, this marks the first high-profile visit by a Chinese delegation to India since the April 2020 Galwan Valley clash.
Further, the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command also posted videos of training exercises that were conducted in Guangdong, a coastal province in South China. In the videos, the PLA can be seen conducting live firing from their ZTL-11 infantry support vehicles.
At a training ground in #Guangdong , the 145th mixed mechanized brigade of the 73rd Army of the Ground Forces of the Eastern Command of the #Chinese PLA conducted an assessment of live firing from ZTL-11 infantry fire support vehicles pic.twitter.com/NyJtIlwfQ7
— Ninjamonkey 🇮🇳 (@Aryan_warlord) February 28, 2023
This is not the first time China has shared military videos on its social media. In August 2022, ahead of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the PLA had gone into overdrive and shared multiple videos of military drills.
The Eastern Theater Command posted a video in which the subtitles (translated to English) urge troops to “stand by in battle formation, be ready to fight upon command, and bury all incoming enemies”.
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) shifts gears in light of Pelosi's potential #Taiwan visit. #PelosiVisit
(Video via the Sina Weibo account of the PLA's Eastern Theater Command) pic.twitter.com/Cxw8VHzuyS
— Beijing Review (@BeijingReview) August 2, 2022
Soldiers in the video could also be heard saying, “move toward joint and successful operations! We are PLA soldiers; we swear to defend the motherland to the death.”
(Edited by Tarannum Khan)
Also read: Jaishankar to meet China’s Qin Gang on G20 sidelines, no LAC breakthrough expected