Chinese media, on Wednesday, downplayed the deadly skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops which took place at the Galwan Valley on June 15 and 16. The Chinese media did not cite the number of casualties on its side even though there were plenty of calls for retaliation against Indian forces on Chinese social media.
Chinese media houses like People's Daily of China, which is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China did not even mention the Indo-Sino border confrontation anywhere on its newspapers. It only republished the Chinese military's official statement on social media without any additional reports. Similarly, state-controlled broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) did the same.
In fact, CCTV's widely watched daily Xinwen Lianbo evening news broadcast made no mention of the border confrontation on Tuesday.
The Chinese nationalist daily Global Times reported the number of deaths on the Indian side on Page 16, adding that China had not released information about casualties.
"China does not want to turn border issues with India into a confrontation," the editorial said of the Global Times said, blaming India for "arrogance and recklessness".
Chinese news agency Xinhua majorly gave coverage to President Xi Jinping's phone call with Ecuador's president. The only mention of Galwan clash was "below the fold" and just a link to the Western Command's statement from yesterday.
However, Chinese social media users on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social platform, were baying for blood. Users shared plenty of information about the clashes reposted from foreign news outlets.
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