Video of New Year's Eve countdown in China altered and shared as pro-Yoon rally

Published on March 14, 2025 at 09:42
4 min read
By Hailey JO, AFP South Korea

As South Korea's Constitutional Court deliberated the formal impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, his supporters shared a video of New Year's Eve celebrations in southeast China falsely claiming it depicted a pro-Yoon rally. The clip of a massive crowd releasing balloons into the air was altered to add the sound of people singing the South Korean national anthem.

The 12-second clip, apparently showing a crowd singing "Aegukga" as they release red, silver and black balloons, was shared on YouTube on March 1. Red is the symbolic colour of the country's right-wing.

"Let's gather on March 1. Let's unite our forces once more," read text superimposed on the video. It continues with lyrics from the national anthem: "Until dry and worn away... May God protect us. Long live our nation."

The post was shared as the suspended Yoon faced hearings before Constitutional Court judges who will determine whether to formally remove him from office over his martial law decree that plunged the country into political turmoil (archived link).

A verdict is expected in mid-March.

Screenshot of the altered YouTube video, taken on March 14, 2025

For months, tens of thousands of South Koreans have been taking to the streets in rival rallies either calling for or opposing Yoon's impeachment.

His supporters wielded red traffic safety batons along with Korean and American flags -- with some co-opting Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" slogan to support unproven claims South Korea's recent elections were manipulated (archived link).

The predominantly younger, liberal constituents calling for his removal waved colourful K-pop glow sticks and banners with witty messages at their rallies (archived link).

Similar claims featuring the video surfaced since at least January on TikTok, X and Facebook.

"Thank you for the huge crowd turnout. Many struggled in the cold," read a comment on one of the posts.

Another said: "Why isn't this covered in the news? It seems like broadcasters are corrupt too. They should be thoroughly investigated."

But the video, originally showing a New Year's Eve countdown event in southeastern China, has been doctored to add the South Korean national anthem and subtitles of the lyrics.

Nanchang celebrations

A reverse image search on Google found a longer version of the video published by Chinese state-media ShanghaiEye on YouTube on January 1, featuring an audio track of people counting down in Chinese (archived link).

The caption reads: "Thousands gather in Nanchang city centre releasing balloons to celebrate the New Year." Nanchang is the capital of China's southeastern Jiangxi province.

At the end of the video, the camera pans towards a large screen displaying "2025 Happy New Year" in Chinese text.

Screenshot comparison between the video shared in false posts (left) and Shanghai Eye video (right)

Further keyword searches led to a similar video of the countdown event published by Jiangxi state media Jxnews on Douyin on January 1, 2025 (archived link).

The caption states the event took place at Nanchang's Zhongshan Road, which can be seen on Baidu maps.

Screenshot comparison of the Shanghai Eye video (left), the Jxnews video (right) and Baidu maps street view imagery of Zhongshan Road, with similarities marked by AFP

The altered video with the South Korean national anthem appears to have originated from YouTube, where it was posted on January 2 and 3 and racked up more than seven million views.

These versions feature disclaimers that state they were created with voice synthesis technology and do not feature actual human voices, though users left comments indicating they had been misled.

Yoon's declaration of martial law and his subsequent impeachment and trial has sparked a wave of misinformation debunked by AFP.

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