Did PLA soldiers freeze at the border? Chinese people searched it on Baidu 4 million times

In this week’s Chinascope, we look at the 14th round of India-China border talks, a professor’s views on China’s young generation, Chinese officials getting caught in graft investigation, tensions in the South China Sea, and other major stories from China – and the world.

China over the week
“Chinese soldiers froze to death at the border? Hu Xijin dispels rumours” was among the top five trends in China this week. It was viewed over 4 million times on search engine Baidu. The controversy started after India Today’s Shiv Aroor claimed Chinese soldiers had frozen to death at the Line of Actual Control. Hu Xijin refuted Aroor’s tweet on his personal Weibo account and later also tweeted, saying, “The information spread by people like the executive editor of India Today @ShivAroor days ago is completely a rumour.”

“It has to be said that the work-style of some Indian media people is not rigorous, and they have created a lot of rumours against China, which is very regrettable,” Hu said in his post on Weibo.

The freezing claim wasn’t the only Indian topic trending in China.

A hashtag “14th round of China-India military commander-level talks” began trending on Weibo last week. It was viewed over 159,000 times. India and China held the 14th round of commander-level talks on the Chinese side of the Chushul-Moldo meeting point on 12 January. There was no breakthrough in the talks but both sides issued a joint statement.