Not missing an opportunity to troll People's Liberation Army troops amid ongoing border hostilities in Ladakh, keyboard warriors have poked fun at the Chinese Army for its video showing personnel saluting a passing train in the Tibet region.
China's state-funded Global Times shared the video of soldiers standing in line and saluting the passing train in the snow-covered region, saying the viral video had touched Chinese netizens.
A special kind of respect: A group of soldiers patrolling the 138-kilometre Qinghai-#Tibet Railway saluted a passing train with the train honking back. The viral video touched many #Chinese netizens. pic.twitter.com/14E0rmfQCQ
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) November 2, 2020
The video led to an avalanche of vicious comments from Indian users, trolling the PLA and Global Times. While some netizens asked if Chinese citizens have Twitter access in the country, others questioned why they were even saluting the train.
I wonder if Chinese citizens have Twitter access in China 😂
— Optimus Prime 😎 (@savyasachi2020) November 2, 2020
Why the hell would you salute a random train, unless there's some significance to it? 😂
— Shubhayu Parui (@ShubhayuP) November 2, 2020
"Saluting a train? Why? Because it's moving?", asked one user. Others called it "propaganda" to emotionally blackmail its citizens.
Saluting a train? Why? Because it's moving?
— Ravindra (@ravirao83) November 2, 2020
It's a little too late in the day to involve emotional blackmail in CCPs China propaganda. No matter what you do, you can't beat Indians there. We fkn invented it.
— Jyoti 'Bombaywalla'✋🏼 (@TravellingJyoti) November 2, 2020
This is not the first time Indian netizens have targeted a Global Times video promoting the Chinese Army. The Global Times has been actively posting videos of the Chinese Army performing mock drills and practising warfare techniques in recent months.
India and China are currently in their longest-ever border standoff. Tensions flared in April over an infrastructural dispute along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Despite several rounds of military and diplomatic level talks, the two sides continue to reinforce their military assets in the contested region, where a violent face-off took place in June of this year in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
