AFP did not publish 'Dawn of Empire' photo series about Chinese soldiers
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 1, 2023 at 10:25
- 6 min read
- By AFP Hong Kong
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
One post featuring four photos of Chinese soldiers was shared on Weibo on September 23, 2022. Its simplified Chinese caption says: "AFP has an 'underworld filter' photo series on the Chinese People's Liberation Army called 'Dawn of Empire'".
Another set of photos was shared on a tweet that similarly claims AFP published the purported series about China's military force.
Similar Chinese language posts have since circulated online -- including as recently as May 2023 -- on Twitter, Weibo, WeChat, Douyin and Zhihu, and on news aggregator sites Sohu, Toutiao and Guancha.
English language posts making a similar claim were also published on TikTok and YouTube. The latter says: "Dawn of Empire AFP deliberately uses tricky angles and dark black system to discredit China".
Many of the posts make references to an "underworld filter"-- allegations that foreign media distort images of China to make them look gloomy or lifeless (archived links here and here).
However, AFP has not published a photo series called "Dawn of Empire" as the posts allege.
Keyword searches on the agency's AFP Forum website of the term yielded no results, as shown here (archived link).
New York Times picture
Furthermore, reverse image search found one of the photos showing soldiers standing under a ring of fireworks was taken by the New York Times and published in a gallery about the 2008 Beijing Olympics (archived link).
The gallery is titled "Scenes From the Ceremony" and the photo caption reads: "The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing opened on Friday night with a lavish ceremony at the National Stadium." The photo is credited to "Doug Mills/The New York Times".
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo in the one of the false posts (left) and the New York Times photo (right):
Altered image
Another photo shared in the false posts had been altered to appear as a black and white image while the original AFP picture is in colour.
It was taken on February 21, 2017 during a welcome ceremony in Beijing for the former French prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve (archived link).
The caption to the photo reads: "An officer checks the positions of Chinese paramilitary guards before the welcome ceremony of French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on February 21, 2017. Cazeneuve is on a three-day visit to China until February 23. FRED DUFOUR / AFP".
Below is a screenshot comparison between the altered photo shared in the false posts (left) and the original AFP photo (right):
AFP's editorial standards for its journalists here prohibit excessive lightening, darkening or blurring of images as well as excessive colour manipulation (archived link).
"Only minor Photoshop work should be performed in the field, especially in bad lighting conditions," the document reads.
"This includes basic colour correction, subtle lightening/darkening of zones, sharpening, removal of dust and other minor adjustments that fall within the above rules."
AFP photos
While the other photos in the false posts were shot by AFP journalists, they were published separately and not as a single series.
The photo showing a flag raising ceremony was taken during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and published on February 4, 2022 (archived link).
Its caption reads: "The Chinese national flag is raised during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, at the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing, on February 4, 2022. Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP".
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the false posts (left) and the corresponding AFP photo (right):
The image of soldiers in front of a building was published on March 9, 2016 (archived link).
It was taken by AFP photographer Fred Dufour and was captioned in part: "Military delegates leave after the 2nd plenary session of the National People's Congress outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 9, 2016".
Another picture of a soldier playing an instrument was published on October 23, 2020 (archived link).
The caption says it was taken during a ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of China’s entry into the 1950-53 Korean War, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and was shot by photographer Noel Celis.
A further reverse search found a pool photo of guards on a set of stairs -- also published on AFP Forum -- had been shared both in whole and cropped (archived link).
The caption to the original photo reads: "Chinese Paramilitary guards stand on the stairs after Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (R), Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and UAE's deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces leaves the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on December 14, 2015".
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
