Did China’s Xi Jinping thank Rahul Gandhi for not starting Yatra from Arunachal? Fact Check

Posted by: Sridevi P January 18, 2024

A tweet widely shared on X (formerly Twitter) shows a screenshot with a claim that China’s state-run news outlet Global Times in its post reported that Chinese “Premier” Xi Jinping thanked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for starting his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur instead of Arunachal Pradesh.

The implication is that Congress removed the northeastern state because China is engaged in disagreement with India on this state’s boundary, and Congress deliberately removed it from the Yatra map to please China. The caption reads: “What did I told you on day one when this yatra first route was published, Arunachal was left out. Congress means Chinese franchise” and it was posted by Gaurav Pradhan.

See the tweet here:

Here’s the original Facebook post:

The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra of Rahul Gandhi started with Manipur where ethnic violence has left the state vulnerable with no peace efforts making any headway. Otherwise, the Yatra started on January 14, 2024 and it will end on March 20, 2024 after covering 6,500 kilometres spanning 15 states from east to west.

The X screenshot shows a post by Global Times, with a photo of Xi Jinping, and the caption reads, “Chinese Premier Xi Jinping thanks Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for respecting sovereignty of China by starting his Bharat Nyay Yatra from Manipur instead of Indian occupied Arunachal Pradesh.”

Another user, Minnie Razdan retweeted the same with a caption that reads, “China thanks Rahul Gandhi for starting Nyay Yatra from Manipur & not from (According to China) Indian Occupied Arunachal….!!! ?? In other words …,,Congress China are on the same page.”

FACT CHECK

Digiteye India took it up for fact-checking as the information looked suspicious on the diplomatic front. The first check on Google News showed no such report by Global Times, nor did they post any such tweet on X as claimed. When we checked Social Blade for any deleted posts by Global Times, we found only one tweet on January 16, 2024 by the news outlet and no record of any deletion of tweet.

 

Further searches on Xi Jinping showed no such comment by him on Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Also, there are several discrepancies in the post, which also indicate that it was not by a news outlet such as “Chinese Premier Xi Jinping” whereas he is “President Xi Jinping”.  Hence, the claim is false.

Claim: China’s Xi Jinping thanked Rahul Gandhi for not starting Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Arunachal Pradesh, as per Global Times Tweet.
Conclusion: False, no such tweet was posted by Global Times nor the claim made by Xi Jinping.

Rating: Totally False — Five rating

About Sridevi P

Sridevi, a business management graduate from Osmania University, Hyderabad has contributed fact-checks whenever she found time. She can be reached at psridevi@digiteye.in