Tribute to dead firefighters in China's Hunan misrepresented as 'mass protest'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on November 15, 2022 at 04:54
3 min read
By Rachel YAN, AFP Hong Kong

A video of a procession of people in China's central province of Hunan paying tribute to two dead firefighters has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in social media posts that falsely claim it shows a "mass protest". A closer analysis of the video -- which corresponds with state media reports about a tribute to the firefighters in Hunan -- found it shows members of the crowd chanting "rest in peace" in Mandarin and holding banners that read: "Rest in peace heroes who put out the fire."

"A mass demonstration broke out in Hunan, China," reads this tweet posted on November 6, 2022 in simplified Chinese characters.

It has been viewed more than 6,900 times.

The video depicts an aerial view of a large crowd chanting while carrying black-and-white banners.

Screenshot of the Twitter post, taken on November 14, 2022

The video was also viewed hundreds of thousands of times alongside a similar claim on multiple social media platforms including here, here and here on Twitter; here on YouTube; here on Facebook, and on US social media site Gettr here, here and here.

However, the video has been shared in a false context.

Tribute to firefighters

In the clip, banners written in simplified Chinese characters translate as: "Long live the spirit of heroes / Rest in peace"; "Rest in peace heroes who put out the fire / People from Xintian will never forget you."

Xintian is a county situated in central China's Hunan province.

The crowd can be also heard chanting "rest in peace" in Mandarin.

The video also bears a user ID from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

A keyword search based on the ID found the same video uploaded by a Douyin user on October 25.

The video's title translates in part as: "Deeply mourn the two martyrs, Cai Maoqiang and Xiao Jianqiang, who died in the October 17 fire in Xintian."

According to this report by the Chinese state newspaper China Daily, a mountain fire broke out in Xintian, resulting in two firefighters -- Cai Maoqiang and Xiao Jianqiang -- being seriously burnt on October 21. They later died from their injuries, the report says.

The report also includes a similar photo captioned: "Locals line up the street to see off the two firefighters on Oct 25. [Photo from Sina Weibo]."

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in the false posts (left) and the image embedded in the China Daily report (right):

Screenshot comparison of the video shared in the false posts (left) and the image embedded in the China Daily report (right)

The procession was also reported by Chinese state media outlets here and here.

AFP found the location where the video was filmed in Xintian county here on Baidu Maps.

Below is a screenshot of the video shared in online posts (left) and the street image on Baidu Maps (right):

Screenshot of the video shared in online posts (left) and the street image on Baidu Maps (right)

There have been no credible reports about a recent mass protest in China's Hunan province.

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