Video shows China cremation vans for pets, not people

A video circulating on social media shows a mobile cremation oven for pets, not humans, contrary to posts that claim the Chinese government is rolling out the service to cope with "mass deaths". Other posts linked their use to the supposed emergence of a deadly new disease in the country. While northern China reported an increase in an undiagnosed "influenza-like illness" in late 2023, health authorities later found the infections were a mix of already known viruses. Mobile animal cremation services also exist in other countries.

"#MobileCremationCar The Chinese Communist Party is ready for mass deaths," reads the simplified-Chinese caption of a video shared on video sharing platform Gettr on January 7, 2024.

The video shows two white vans with cremation ovens installed inside them.

Yellow text overlaid on the video reads: "Mobile cremation vehicle, it sounds chilling. If this thing becomes popular, in the future human bodies won't be dumped into rivers, they'll simply disappear into thin air."

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Screenshot of the false Gettr post, captured on January 31, 2024

The video was also shared on TikTok here and here, and on X here, in a post shared more than 4,600 times that claims the vans are being assembled as China faces a deadly new disease called "disease X".

But the vans are designed for businesses that offer a mobile pet cremation service.

Pet cremation vans

Simplified Chinese text that appears near the end of the falsely shared video reads: "pet funeral specialised cremation truck".

It adds: "Nationwide licensing and annual inspections are available. Easy to operate, with automatic ignition."

The video's narrator says the cremation ovens were installed in vans made by automakers Chang'an and Ford.

Reverse image searches and keyword searches found listings of similar models here and here on a car dealership website (archived links here and here).

Below are screenshot comparisons of the falsely shared video (left) and photos on the car dealership's website (right), with similarities in the vehicles highlighted by AFP:

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Screenshot comparisons of the falsely shared video (left) and photos on the car dealership's website (right)

The listings say the vans are designed for "non-hazardous disposal of animal carcasses" and include a patent serial number for the vehicle-mounted pet cremation oven; the patent can be seen on the website of the China National Intellectual Property Administration.

Mobile pet cremation services are not new. Shanghai-based media outlet Pear Video reported on a cremation van in the city of Hefei in May 2021, in a video posted on Weibo (archived link).

Reports about similar services in South Korea and India were also published in May 2019 and July 2023 respectively (archived links here and here).

'Disease X'

One of the false posts claims Chinese authorities have started rolling out the vans as "a new disease X" that has "a 100% kill rate on lab-tested mice" emerged in the country.

But "disease X" is a term used by the WHO as a placeholder to refer to a hypothetical future pandemic -- not a disease currently spreading in China (archived link).

Conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones have falsely claimed that a meeting in January 2024 on preparing for "Disease X" was evidence of a plot to deliberately create a global health catastrophe (archived link).

There was a spike in respiratory illnesses at the end of 2023, sparking speculation online of a new pandemic threat four years after Covid-19 first emerged in the country.

But Chinese health authorities said the rising infections were a mix of already known viruses and were linked to the country's first full cold season after strict Covid restrictions were lifted in December 2022.

AFP has previously debunked false claims linked to the surge of respiratory illness cases here, here and here.