Photo does not show Taiwanese ship 'flying Chinese flag in the Red Sea'

"Evergreen Marine's cargo ship flew the five-star red flag and passed through the Red Sea smoothly. What kind of trick is this by the Evergreen Group," read an August 15 post on social media platform X in simplified Chinese.

The post shared a video of the cargo ship Ever Given, owned by the Taiwan-based Evergreen Group, a conglomerate of transport and hotel services. 

Text on the video repeated the false claim in simplified Chinese. It also said Evergreen was a company from the "Chinese province of Taiwan".

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on August 29, 2024

The false claim surfaced after staff at a hotel in Paris operated by Evergreen refused a guest's request to put up a Chinese flag as part of its lobby decor during the Olympic Games. 

The guest -- who recorded and uploaded his exchange with hotel staff on Douyin -- said the hotel decorated the lobby with national flags around the world, but not the Chinese flag. 

The video sparked an outcry in China, with social media users and state media criticising the hotel has "hurt the feelings" of the Chinese people (archived link).

Evergreen later issued an apology to say it would avoid similar incidents in the future. 

Some Chinese social media users appeared to believe the claim about the ship.

"Take advantage of China. If there is no value, they just discard it," read one comment.

"Shameless," another user wrote. 

The Iran-backed rebels, who control much of Yemen, have carried out scores of drone and missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November, citing solidarity with Palestinians over the Israel-Hamas war (archived link).

US media Bloomberg reported in March 2024 that the group had told Chinese and Russian officials that they would not target ships from the two countries in exchange for political support to the group in bodies such as the UN (archived link). 

The photo was also shared elsewhere with a similar false claim on Facebook; TikTok here and here; and on YouTube.

The photo from 2019 shows Evergreen's ship -- without a Chinese flag -- near Rotterdam port.

Old photo

A reverse image search on Google found the ship photo was published on the US-based media site Shutterstock on October 19, 2019 (archived link).

"The container ship Ever Given reaches the port of Rotterdam on 3 July 2019," the photo's caption read.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the false posts (left) and the original image (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the photo in the false posts (left) and the original image (right)

Evergreen Marine said on December 19, 2023 that in light of the escalating risks, the company had decided to "temporarily stop accepting Israeli cargo with immediate effect, and has instructed its container ships to suspend navigation through the Red Sea until further notice" (archived link).

A spokesperson for the company also confirmed to AFP on August 30, 2024 that the policy remained in effect. 

"Regarding flags on the container ship, Evergreen Marine complies with internationally adopted flag regulations and sailing flag etiquette, which are also common practice in the shipping industry," it said.

Taiwan-based outlet United Daily News also reported on July 11 that due to geopolitical complications, Evergreen Marine was not considering sending ships through the Red Sea "for the time being" (archived link).

AFP has debunked other false information related to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea here, here and here.