As the news broke out about the violent clashes that took place between the Indian soldiers and Chinese troopers in Galwan valley in Eastern Ladakh, an illustration of Lord Ram, one of the most important Gods in the Hindu pantheon, taking on the Chinese Dragon surfaced online.
The infographic of Lord Ram battling the Chinese Dragon was posted on the Hong Kong social media website LIHKG in solidarity with India after it lost 20 soldiers in the melee with the Chinese forces along the stretch of the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh. The illustration carried the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu, Lord Ram, drawing a bow to shoot the Chinese Dragon along with the message “We conquer. We kill.”
Hong Kong Twitter user HoSaiLei shared it on Twitter and it instantly went viral as Indians and residents of Hong Kong joined hands to stand up to the Chinese expansionism. As of now, the post had garnered 780 retweets, 2,000 likes and 78 comments.
印度朋友連中印大戰精美poster都整好了https://t.co/pdU9nS6Zra
— HoSaiLei🇺🇸🇬🇧🇧🇪🇯🇵🇮🇳 (@hkbhkese) June 16, 2020
– 分享自 LIHKG 討論區 pic.twitter.com/ttl7XLPsmi
Similarly, other Hong Kong Twitter users also expressed their support to India in its fight to stall the expansionist manoeuvres of Beijing. Users tweeted with #HKstandswithIndia to convey their support for India.
HongKongers support India,it’s not only your fight,we must unite together to against that red evil empire👊🏻#hkstandswithindia #StandWithHongKong #StandWithIndia
— Babycaca (@Babycaca999) June 17, 2020
Several Indian netizens thanked Hong Kong Twitter users for standing in support of India against China.
Thank you❤ #IndiaStandsWithHK
— •••••• (@rutuuku) June 17, 2020
Thank u Hong Kong.
— Sarath Prasannakumar (@SarathPrasanna4) June 17, 2020
The illustration of Lord Ram slaying the Chinese dragon was also hailed by the Taiwanese media organisation and The Taiwan News, one of the leading English media organisation in Taiwan published a report about the illustration that united the Twitter users from Hong Kong, Taiwan and India against the Chinese authoritarianism.
It is pertinent to note that there is groundswell of anti-China sentiments among the residents of Hong Kong and Taiwan after China tightened its grip on the semi-autonomous business hub and threatened Taiwan with military attack. China recently passed a controversial national security law that chip away at the autonomy previously enjoyed by Hong Kong and enables extradition of wrongdoers from Hong Kong to the Mainland China. The city was convulsed with demonstrations and protests much of the last year but the onset of coronavirus crisis dampened the protests. Taking the cover of the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party quickly passed the national security law on the pretext of restoring law and order in the semi-autonomous region. Protesters have claimed this to be in violation of the treaty signed with the Britain in 1997 and termed China’s move as autocratic to quell the dissenting voices.
China has similarly strengthened its claims on Taiwan and has considered it as a part of its territory. It has recently threatened to annex the country by military force if the island resists unification indefinitely. The threats came in the wake of Taiwan’s request to attend WHO meet and amidst growing mistrust among several countries towards China for its initial mishandling of the coronavirus crisis.
