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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

War & conflict fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about war & conflict. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

5,848 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYWar & conflict

Image of Indian troops returning Chinese soldier after China lost the 1967 Nathu La conflict to India

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim attached to the image says it depicts Indian troops returning a Chinese soldier after China lost the 1967 Nathu La conflict. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the image as showing a different event: Indian soldiers carrying a Chinese prisoner of war to an exchange point in Panmunjom, North Korea, after the Korean War. The review therefore distinguishes the image’s actual setting and circumstances from the 1967 India-China clashes invoked in the social-media caption. FACTLY says it used reverse-image search and found the photograph in the Getty Images library. The accompanying Getty description dates the image to 5 October 1953 and says the soldier was being taken to the exchange point for return to the Communists. It further identifies him as one of 65 Chinese soldiers who had asked to be repatriated. This image provenance places the scene in 1953, well before the Nathu La clashes in 1967. The review also provides context for why Indian personnel were involved in the prisoner exchange: India sent a force to look after prisoners of war and address repatriation after the Korean War. It separately describes the Nathu La and Cho La clashes as India-China border incidents in September and October 1967. The image’s identified date, location and prisoner-exchange context do not match the claim’s account of a soldier being returned after the Nathu La conflict.