Social media users share fabricated Chinese state media Weibo post about Taiwan baseball win

"This is how Chinese media reported the Taiwanese baseball team's win over Japan. How shameless," read a simplified Chinese X post on November 27. 

The accompanying image appears to show a screenshot of a Weibo post by Chinese state media Beijing Evening News, which featured a hashtag that read "China beat Japan 4:0".

"Our country's baseball team defeated Japan 4-0 in the final of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12 yesterday, creating a new history for Chinese sports," the Weibo post in the screenshot continued.

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Screenshot of the false post

The post surfaced online after Taiwan defeated Japan 4-0 in the final of the WBSC Premier 12 international baseball tournament in Tokyo on November 24, sparking jubilation on the island of 23 million people where the sport is wildly popular (archived link). 

Taiwan competes under the name Chinese Taipei in international sports events due to pressure from China, which claims the island as part of its own territory and bristles at any attempt to give Taiwan legitimacy on the global stage.

The same purported screenshot was also shared elsewhere on X here and here, Threads here and here, and on YouTube.

However, a representative for Beijing Evening News told AFP on December 13: "This screenshot is not published content from the official Weibo account of Beijing Evening News."

A close analysis of the image found several elements that indicated it was fabricated.

Fabricated screenshot

A keyword search on Google led to the Beijing Evening News' official Weibo page (archived link).

The "V" on the verified page's badge is upright, while the letter in the purported screenshot is in italics. 

It also appears to mix elements from the desktop and mobile versions of Weibo.

An arrow at the top right of the purported screenshot can be seen, which would indicate it was taken on the platform's desktop version, but it also features a crown only used on Weibo's mobile version. 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the false posts (left) and a genuine Beijing Evening News Weibo post on December 9 (right), with the different visual elements highlighted by AFP:

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Screenshot comparison of the image in the false posts (left) and a genuine Beijing Evening News Weibo post on December 9 (right), with the different visual elements highlighted by AFP

Further keyword searches on the Beijing Evening News Weibo page found it had not posted about Taiwan winning the baseball tournament. 

Searches on Weibo also did not find any hashtags for the topic "China beat Japan 4:0" on the social media site.

A site search on Google and keyword searches on the Beijing Evening News website also found it had not reported about Taiwan's win at the baseball tournament.

Since 2017, Chinese state media have used the name "China Taipei" to refer to Taiwanese sports teams. They do not directly refer to teams from Taiwan as the "China team" (archived link).