Dhaka: A large group of Chinese nationals has been moving around slums and poorer neighbourhoods in Dhaka, Bangladesh, livestreaming the living conditions there and presenting the footage to viewers back home as scenes from New Delhi, while making disparaging remarks.
The activity has been documented by Prothom Alo, one of Bangladesh’s leading newspapers. It has raised questions in India over a possible attempt to manufacture negative perceptions of the country among Chinese audiences.
The Chinese nationals are filming extensively in the Tekpara area and Sector 12 of Uttara in the Bangladeshi capital, the newspaper’s investigation found.
While locals estimated that more than 150 Chinese nationals have been involved in the activity, Prothom Alo said it could not independently establish the exact number.
The livestreams, which reportedly run from morning till night, are being broadcast on Chinese platforms such as WeChat and Douyin. What has particularly drawn attention is the repeated misrepresentation of the locations: footage shot in Dhaka is being described to viewers as coming from New Delhi.
Translations of the Chinese-language commentary were made by the Bangladeshi newspaper using Google Translate and verified by four Bangladeshis familiar with the language.
On November 1, a Chinese woman identified as Mianmian, who said she was from China’s Sichuan province, was livestreaming beside a canal in Uttara’s Sector 12. While showing viewers the neighbourhood, she described it as New Delhi and said: “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.”
Another streamer, identified as Wang Wei, was reportedly seen filming at tea stalls in Tekpara and telling viewers that the tea being consumed by locals was made from “cow urine” and dirty river water.
Indian intelligence agencies are now looking into the matter, given the scale and persistence of the activity, along with the repeated claims that the footage is from India.
The pattern is a possible attempt at perception-shaping through social media, top intelligence sources said. According to the sources, presenting footage of poverty-stricken Bangladeshi neighbourhoods as scenes from India allows negative portrayals of Indian living conditions, sanitation and everyday life to circulate without the streamers having to film inside India, as reported by News18.
This is part of a wider pattern of using online content to shape anti-India narratives, the sources said. However, there is no independently established evidence that the streamers are operating under the direction of the Chinese state or as part of a centrally coordinated campaign.
There is also a commercial dimension to the activity. During its investigation, Prothom Alo spoke to a Chinese national identified as Fangyou, who said the livestreams were being conducted on WeChat as part of product-promotion activities. He declined to explain why the particular neighbourhood had been selected or why the broadcasts continued for such long hours.
They earned money through videos posted on platforms such as WeChat and Douyin, a Bangladeshi woman who worked as a guide for the Chinese nationals told the newspaper. She received between Tk 700 and Tk 800 a day for assisting them, the woman said.
The focus on impoverished neighbourhoods may also be linked to the popularity of poverty-themed content among online audiences. An earlier investigation by Bangladesh’s The Business Standard, published in May, had documented Chinese vloggers filming in the narrow lanes and low-income settlements of Tekpara. It found that videos featuring such locations followed recurring formats, often using descriptions centred on poverty and poor living conditions.
Residents have also started complaining with the streamers frequently filming in residential lanes, shops and private homes.
The Chinese nationals had entered their homes while recording, some residents told Prothom Alo. One woman complained that they had even walked into bathrooms, leaving people uncomfortable and concerned about their privacy.
Local police have noticed the filming but have struggled to establish its purpose, partly because of language barriers and the reluctance of some streamers to engage with them.
He did not know why the Chinese nationals were making the videos or where they were being broadcast. He said senior authorities had been informed and that work was underway on the matter, Mohammad Khalid Mansur, officer-in-charge of Uttara West Police Station, told Prothom Alo.
The reports have raised questions not only about the privacy of residents in Dhaka but also about the possible use of misleading online content to influence perceptions across borders.
For Bangladesh, the issue may extend beyond the nuisance caused by prolonged filming in residential neighbourhoods. If footage from the country is being systematically presented as scenes from India, it raises concerns about how such content could be used to shape narratives about both countries.
The precise purpose behind the livestreams remains unclear as of now. While the repeated false identification of Dhaka as New Delhi has prompted suspicion in India, the available reporting has not established whether the streamers are acting independently for commercial gain or as part of a coordinated operation.
