Photos show Chinese medics flying to epicentre of coronavirus outbreak, not 'deployed to aid Russia'

"The Chinese Communist Party's Red Cross troops in Russia have changed into winter clothes and set off for the Russian-Ukrainian front to aid Russia in rescuing its occupied territories," read the traditional Chinese caption to an image shared on social media platform X on August 25, 2024.

The picture appears to show people in military uniform carrying luggage on a runway, and the overlaid red text reads: "At around 3 am, Red Cross troops departed for Russia". It also praises "world peace", China-Russia relations and the People's Liberation Army.

Another image, showing a plane with a Chinese flag on its tail, was shared on X on August 24 and was captioned: "Vowing to fight the United States to the end, President Xi has provided assistance to Russia on all fronts!"

Text overlaid on the picture says: "At 3:10 am, the Red Cross unit departed for Russia in a rescue operation."

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Screenshot of the false X posts, captured on September 4, 2024

The posts were shared after US President Joe Biden announced a new round of military aid for Kyiv as Ukrainian troops pressed an attack into Russia's western Kursk region -- the most serious attack by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II (archived link).

Washington had earlier imposed sweeping sanctions on individuals and companies it believed were aiding Russia's war in Ukraine, including several Chinese firms, and expanded existing measures to curb Moscow over the invasion of its neighbour.

While the United States has been a key military backer of Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, China has presented itself as a neutral party and said it was not sending lethal assistance to either side (archived link).

Beijing, however, is a close political and economic ally of Russia, and NATO members have branded the country a "decisive enabler" of the war, which it has never condemned.

Similar posts claiming the images showed Chinese troops on their way to Russia were shared hundreds of times elsewhere on X here, here and here.

The pictures in fact were taken from a video published by Chinese state-owned media in January 2020, before the war in Ukraine started.

Wuhan-bound

A reverse image and subsequent keyword searches led to a video published by Chinese state-run broadcaster CGTN on its official X account on January 25, 2020 (archived link).

Its caption said 450 military doctors and medical personnel from China's three military medical universities had rushed to Wuhan to help fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the images used in the false X posts (left) and the video published by CGTN (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the images used in the false X posts (left) and the video published by CGTN (right)

Citing state media, AFP reported that the medics were dispatched to hospitals with large numbers of infected patients, and marked a dramatic escalation in the Chinese government's involvement in containing the virus, which to that point had killed 41 people and infected more than 1,200 others across the country (archived link).

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to Covid-19 as an international public health emergency in May 2023, more than three years after the virus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 (archived link).

More than seven million Covid deaths have been reported to the WHO, though the true toll of the pandemic -- which shredded economies and crippled health systems -- is thought to be far higher.

The People's Daily and China News Service also published reports showing the same scene (archived links here and here).

AFP has verified other misinformation about the war in Ukraine here.