"China is now selling t-shirts with #BoycottChina printed on them, anticipating high demand from India."
Have you come across this post on Twitter? You're not the only one.
In the past few days, several Indians have tweeted that China is apparently now selling #BoycottChina and #BoycottChineseProducts t-shirts online after seeing a surge in demand from India. However, the claim, absurd as it sounds, is untrue.
These are a few examples we came across on Twitter:
China is manufacturing "Boycott China" Tshirts in anticipation of high demand in India. #chinaindiaborder #BoycottChina
— (@zaminqazi) June 2, 2020
China now start mass producing #BoycottChina tshirts to easily sell them in India — Psychosocial_memes (@Psychosocialme1) June 8, 2020
China is producing #BoycottChina Tshirts as they anticipate rise in demand in India and the rest of the world towards the end of Covid 19 pandemic. pic.twitter.com/HU37DuiTlc
— Moran (@ItsMoran_) June 2, 2020
Heard China manufacturing “#BoycottChina” Tshirts in anticipation of great demand from India. — Aparna (@chhuti_is) May 31, 2020
U will b surprise 2 noe that china itself is manufacturing #BoycottChina TSHIRTS and indians have already started purchasing it..dats called buisness strategies..and dere next target is #ihatechina tshirts pic.twitter.com/6c5cXKYu1j
— Nitish Kashyap (@NitishK11032504) June 2, 2020
Just ordered 1000 of these Tshirts from AliExpress. Will distribute it in my locality. Let's #BoycottChina and stand with Modiji pic.twitter.com/uC6FZtil8d — Drunk Journalist (@drunkJournalist) June 13, 2020
Now, here's what happened.
The Fauxy, a renowned satire website, published an article on June 1 with the headline, "China Manufactures #BoycottChina T-shirts and banners anticipating the Boycott China campaign."
This was while the India-China tensions were at its peak. And of course, many who were unaware of Fauxy's reputation, fell for what was supposed to be a joke.
Soon, hundreds of Indians were sharing screenshots of said merchandise and tweeting that China was selling such products. This forced Chinese media organisation, Global Times, to carry out a detailed fact check on the same.
According to Global Times, Chinese textile companies have rubbished such claims. Regulations and laws in China prohibit Chinese companies from manufacturing goods which harbour an anti-China sentiment and a government official told GT that it is "common sense" that such news reports are fake.
The Army on Tuesday termed the marathon talks with China to ease tensions between the countries over the Galwan Valley clashes as “positive and cordial” in the first official statement.
Indian and Chinese militaries on Monday held a second round of Lt General-level talks in an attempt to defuse the tensions between the two countries following the violent clashes in Galwan Valley that left 20 Indian Army personnel dead, even as the country's top army leadership carried out a detailed review of the situation in eastern Ladakh.
The government has given "full freedom" to the armed forces, deployed along the 3,500-km de-facto border with China, to give a "befitting" response to any Chinese misadventure, government sources said after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the situation in eastern Ladakh at a meeting with the top military brass on Sunday.
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