Posts falsely claiming 'Philippines fired water cannon at China ships' share doctored images

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 19, 2023 at 08:58
Updated on October 19, 2023 at 10:10
4 min read
By Lucille SODIPE, AFP Philippines

As tensions soared between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, a video surfaced online in September falsely claiming the Philippine Coast Guard "fired water cannon at Chinese militia" in a contested atoll in an incident purportedly condemned by Beijing. But the video features doctored images, and there is no record of the incident or China's purported response to it.

"Philippine Coast Guard loses patience! Fires water cannon at aggressive Chinese maritime militia at Ayungin," reads the headline on a YouTube video published on September 19.

It uses the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal, an atoll about 200 kilometres (124 miles) from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) from China's nearest major landmass of Hainan island.

The video features images that appear to show a ship -- bearing the name "Philippine Coast Guard" -- firing a jet of water at another vessel that has Chinese characters painted on its hull.

"A source said the Philippine Coast Guard fired water cannon at two Chinese militia vessels near Ayungin after the crew ran out of patience," says Tagalog-language narration in the YouTube video.

It goes on to claim Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, condemned the incident and supposedly said "harassment inside their territory is unacceptable".

The rest of the video discusses joint military drills between the Philippines and Australia and a successful mission to resupply Philippine troops on the Second Thomas Shoal.

A screenshot of the YouTube video taken on October 3, 2023

Manila and Beijing have a long history of maritime disputes over the South China Sea. Tensions flared this year after a Chinese coast guard vessel allegedly used a military-grade laser against a Philippine coast guard boat near Second Thomas Shoal.

In another incident on August 5, the Philippines condemned China's Coast Guard for firing water cannon at its vessels, describing it as "illegal" and "dangerous".

China said it had taken "necessary controls" against Philippines boats that had "illegally" entered its waters.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, and has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The video has also been shared on Facebook here and here and spawned a reaction video on YouTube.

Although the video flashes a disclaimer saying its content is "purely for entertainment purposes", many social media users appeared to believe it was a genuine report.

"That's a good move from the Phil Coast guard so the Chinese will know that area is in our waters and they need to leave," one wrote.

"Finally they defended what is ours," another said.

However, the video features doctored images and there is no credible record that the incident in the claim took place.

'Maritime drill'

A reverse image search on Google found the first picture is an AFP photo taken in 2016 showing a maritime firefighting drill in waters near the Hainan province in southern China.

Its caption reads: "This photo taken on July 14, 2016 shows Chinese ships putting out a fire on a mock cargo vessel during an emergency drill in the South China Sea near Sansha, in south China's Hainan province."

In the photo, Chinese characters can be seen painted on the hull of the ship that fired the water jet, while the words "Philippine Coast Guard" cannot be seen.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and the original photo (right), with the edited area highlighted in red:

Doctored image (left) and AFP photo (right)

A further reverse image search on Baidu revealed the words "Philippine Coast Guard" on the hull of the vessel seen in the picture at the 40-second mark was also digitally added.

The image was originally published by China News Service (CNS) on July 14, 2016 and said it shows a maritime rescue exercise (archived link).

"The 2016 Sansha maritime emergency drill was successfully held on waters near the Paracel Islands on July 14," the photo's caption reads. "This is China's first successful drill of joint aerial and maritime rescue operations in Sansha waters."

It was also published by Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television and Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao (archived links here and here).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored picture (left) and the China News Service photo (right) with the edited hull highlighted in red:

Doctored image (left) and China News Service photo (right)

Records on the Chinese foreign ministry's website also show its daily press conference was hosted by another spokesperson, Mao Ning, in the week when the false video surfaced on September 19 (archived link).

A search on the ministry's website, account on Sina, Weibo and Chinese state media reports also did not reveal any statements from Wang commenting on such an incident.

Keyword searches online did not find any reliable reports of the Philippines firing water cannon on Chinese ships around Second Thomas Shoal.

AFP has previously debunked false claims about the South China Sea dispute here and here.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail