Chinese nationals in Dhaka are being investigated for filming impoverished neighborhoods and falsely broadcasting them as Indian territory, part of a suspected coordinated disinformation campaign disparaging India’s living conditions.
Chinese Nationals Filming Dhaka Slums as India
In a bizarre and troubling development raising concerns over coordinated disinformation campaigns, around 150 Chinese nationals have been reported to be documenting impoverished neighbourhoods in the Bangladeshi capital and broadcasting the footage as scenes from India, according to an investigative report published by Prothom Alo. The ongoing operation involves Chinese vloggers filming within the narrow lanes of Tekpara and Uttara districts in Dhaka, subsequently transmitting live content across digital networks while falsely claiming that the broadcasts originate from New Delhi.
Details of the Disinformation Campaign
The investigation highlights specific instances, including a Chinese national identified as ‘Mianmian’, who stated that she originated from China’s Sichuan province, conducting a livestream near a canal in Uttara’s Sector 12 on November 1. While presenting the locality to online viewers, she introduced it as the Indian capital and launched into sharp criticism of the local infrastructure. “This is New Delhi. Their homes are extremely dirty. There isn’t even a fan inside the tin-roofed houses. This place is quite underdeveloped, dirty and unhygienic, and the law-and-order situation is poor,” Prothom Alo quoted her as saying.
A separate individual, identified as ‘Wang Wei’, was documented recording tea vendors operating within Tekpara and making derogatory assertions regarding the beverages consumed by local residents. “Look, they are drinking tea. Do you know what kind of tea this is? This is cow urine tea. They drink cow urine tea,” the streamer told viewers, as detailed by the newspaper. Additional commentary captured during the livestreams featured unfounded assertions regarding domestic living arrangements, with certain participants claiming that they resided in the settlements alongside local spouses following marriages in India.
Investigation Findings and Local Reaction
The broadcasts, hosted on digital platforms including WeChat and Douyin, have drawn scrutiny regarding their underlying intent. While one participant, ‘Fangyou’, claimed to Prothom Alo that the transmissions formed part of commercial promotional activities, investigators noted that the selection of specific impoverished settlements to disparage Indian living standards pointed towards broader psychological or geopolitical narratives.
Local residents interviewed during the investigation expressed mounting unease regarding the intrusive nature of the recordings, noting that filming crews frequently bypassed boundaries without authorisation. Prothom Alo documented instances in which vloggers entered private residential spaces, kitchens and domestic annexes without obtaining prior consent from occupants. The investigation further revealed that local facilitators assisted the foreign nationals in navigating the urban settlements, with guides receiving daily remuneration ranging between 700 and 800 Bangladeshi taka.
While local law enforcement authorities at the Uttara West Police Station acknowledged observing the foreign nationals recording footage within the district, officials confirmed that the precise motivations behind the systematic misrepresentation of locations remained under administrative review. The Media reports clearly suggest a coordinated anti India campaign. The deliberate attribution of another country’s locations and living conditions to India, accompanied by derogatory commentary that could influence perceptions of Indian society among international audiences, is being seen as concerning. (ANI)
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