Old video falsely circulated as deadly February 2024 incident between Taiwanese and Chinese boats

"New video revealed: The inside story of the deaths of two Chinese agents in the waters off Kinmen Islands during the recent naval battle is revealed," reads part of the simplified Chinese caption of a video posted on social media platform X here on February 18, 2024.

The 15-second-long video, which was shared more than 300 times, shows one boat speeding up to another and crashing into it. The clip then cuts to a scene of people on another boat searching the water with long rods.

The caption claims Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents "posing as civilians" rammed their speedboat into a Taiwanese maritime patrol vessel, damaging the ship.

"The CCP speedboat capsized (possibly injuring the agents in the crash) killing two of the agents," it adds.

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Screenshot of the false X post, captured on February 27, 2024

The claim circulated days after two Chinese nationals died when their speedboat capsized while being chased by the Taiwanese coast guard near Kinmen -- a territory administered by Taipei but located just five kilometres (three miles) from the Chinese city of Xiamen -- on February 14, 2024.

Two other crew were rescued and temporarily detained in Kinmen.

Chinese authorities have accused the Taiwanese of "seeking to evade their responsibilities and hide the truth" about the incident, which occurred against a backdrop of heightened tensions between China and Taiwan -- a self-ruled island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.

The video was also shared alongside similar false claims elsewhere on X here, here, here and here.

In fact, the video circulated in reports from March 2020 about a separate collision between Chinese and Taiwanese boats.

Collision footage from 2020

Reverse image and keyword searches on Google, Baidu and subsequently on Weibo found the video was uploaded to the Chinese social media platform by China Youth Net, a media site run by the CCP's youth wing, on March 20, 2020 (archived link).

The post's simplified Chinese caption reads, in part: "On March 16, fishing boats from mainland China forcefully rammed into Taiwan's 'maritime patrol boats'."

Below are screenshot comparisons of the video shared in the false posts (left) and the clip uploaded by China Youth Net on Weibo (right):

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Screenshot comparisons of the video shared in the false posts (left) and the clip uploaded by China Youth Net on Weibo (right)

The same footage was used in reports by Taiwanese television station CTS News from March 19, 2020 and Kinmen's local broadcaster Yesradio on March 20, 2020 (archived links here and here).

Both media credit the video to the coast guard administration of Kinmen (archived link).

The CTS News report, citing Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA), states that a Taiwanese patrol vessel was rammed into and damaged by Chinese fishing boats working illegally near Lesser Kinmen Island after authorities cut their nets (archived link).

In a report from March 22, 2020, The Taipei Times quoted a spokesperson for one of the coast guard's units in Kinmen, Chen Chien-wen, as saying no coast guard personnel were injured in the incident (archived link).

A Forbes article published on March 21, 2020 reported that the coast guard vessel was damaged during the melee, but there were no injuries or deaths (archived link).