India Shocks Chinese Media

The Government of India on Wednesday banned the X accounts of Chinese state-run media outlets Global Times and Xinhua, citing the spread of misleading information related to Indian armed forces. This decision follows repeated warnings issued by the Indian Embassy in China, which had earlier advised these media agencies to verify facts before sharing information on social media.

“Dear Global Times News, we recommend that you verify facts and thoroughly examine your sources before disseminating such misleading information,” the Indian Embassy in China stated in a post on X dated May 7. Another post from the Embassy emphasized, “In the context of #OperationSindoor, several Pakistan-linked handles are spreading baseless allegations to mislead the public. It is irresponsible and a violation of journalistic ethics for media outlets to propagate such content without verification.”

These actions come in the wake of viral allegations from Pakistani accounts and some media agencies claiming that an Indian Rafale fighter jet had been shot down near Bahawalpur. A widely circulated image associated with the claim was identified by the PIB Fact Check team as misleading. The image was clarified to be of a MiG-21 aircraft that crashed in Punjab’s Moga district in 2021.

India Strongly Condemns China's Renaming of Arunachal Pradesh Regions

Separately, the Ministry of External Affairs of India strongly condemned China’s recent move to rename several areas within Arunachal Pradesh. The Ministry reaffirmed that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and that attempts to alter this fact through arbitrary renaming would not succeed.

“We have observed China’s continued attempts to assign invented names to areas in Arunachal Pradesh, which is an integral part of India. We unequivocally reject such attempts. Assigning invented names will not change the reality that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India,” said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.