Unrelated naval footage falsely used in video about deadly Kinmen boat incident

Published on March 12, 2024 at 07:35
5 min read
By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong

Old footage of naval ships has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in posts about a fatal boat incident near Taiwan's Kinmen islands in February 2024. The video circulated as Taiwan's coast guard said it had detected an increase in Chinese ships in waters around Kinmen since the February 14 incident.

"[China] is getting serious about this, six coast guard ships blockaded Kinmen, boarded and inspected yachts from Kinmen for the first time, and Taiwanese authorities chickened out," reads the simplified Chinese title of a video published on the Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili on February 21, 2024.

A man speaking Mandarin in the video -- viewed more than 200,000 times -- describes China's Coast Guard operations in mid-February around Taiwan's Kinmen islands, located just five kilometres (three miles) from the Chinese city of Xiamen.

The video was also shared alongside a similar false claim elsewhere on YouTube.

Screenshot of the false post taken on March 1, 2024

It circulated after two Chinese nationals drowned on February 14, 2024 as their fishing boat was being chased by the Taiwanese coast guard, further fuelling tensions between China and Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

Taiwan's coast guard chief said on March 4 that an average of six to seven Chinese vessels were spotted in waters around Kinmen island every day since the deadly fishing boat incident.

The inspection of a Taiwanese yacht by China's Coast Guard was reported by media on both sides on February 19, 2024 (archived links here and here).

However, reverse image searches on Google found the video that circulated on Chinese social media contained footage which predated the Kinmen Islands row.

South China Sea clips

The video's first four seconds corresponded to footage shared on social media platform X by Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela on September 8, 2023 (archived link).

The clip's caption stated the Philippine Coast Guard was escorting supply vessels to Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly islands, where a handful of troops are stationed on a crumbling navy ship in the hotly contested South China Sea.

The caption added the vessels were "subjected to dangerous maneuvers" by China Coast Guard ships, which AFP also reported at the time.

Today, the @coastguardph again assisted in the routine Rotation and Resupply (RoRe) mission in Ayungin Shoal conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The PCG deployed two 44-meter vessels, namely BRP Cabra (MRRV-4409) and BRP Sindangan (MRRV-4407), as escort ships… pic.twitter.com/ZKnkxMBcD0
— Jay Tarriela (@jaytaryela) September 8, 2023

The false video also corresponded with the South China Sea footage from its 30-second to 59-second mark.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the clips used in a false context in the video (left) and the ones shared in Tarriela's X post (right):

Screenshot comparisons of the clips used in a false context in the video (left) and the ones shared in Tarriela's X post (right)

Philippine online news site Rappler also included these clips in its report about China attempting to prevent the resupply mission on September 8, 2023 (archived link).

Subsequent reverse image searches found the clips of Chinese Coast Guard ships seen from the false video's one-minute, 27-second mark to its one-minute, 51-second mark correspond to AFP's footage published on its YouTube channel on August 23, 2023 (archived link).

The video's description read: "The Philippines said a resupply mission had reached a remote outpost in the disputed South China Sea Tuesday, despite attempts by Chinese vessels to 'block' the boats carrying provisions for Filipino marines."

AFP reported four Philippine supply boats were chased by Chinese ships as they attempted to reach the Second Thomas Shoal on August 22, 2023.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the clips used in a false context (left) and AFP video (right):

Screenshot comparisons of the clips used in a false context (left) and the video from AFP (right)

Another section of the footage in the false posts was taken from this AFP video published on November 11, 2023 (archived link) alongside the title "Chinese boats in high-seas chase Philippine boat with media".

The video says the pursuit ended after the Philippine Navy deployed inflatable vessels from its station on Second Thomas Shoal to block the approaching Chinese boats.

It corresponds with footage shown at the false video's two-minute, 39-second mark to its two-minute, 42-second mark.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip used in the false video (left) and the AFP footage (right):

Screenshot comparison of the clip used in the false video (left) and the AFP footage (right)

US aircraft carrier

Further reverse image and keyword searches found clips showing a fleet of ships were taken from footage published on YouTube on November 17, 2022 and uploaded by the US Navy (archived link).

The video's description states it shows the deployment of the first-in-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in the Atlantic Ocean on November 7, 2022.

The false video corresponded with the US Navy's footage from its three-minute, eight-second mark to its three-minute, 22-second mark.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the false video (left) and the US Navy clip (right):

Screenshot comparisons of the false video (left) and the one shared by the US Navy (right)

AFP has debunked other false posts linking unrelated videos to the deadly incident in Kinmen here and here.

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