Activists form the numbers “228” at a Taipei square on February 28, 2009, the 62nd anniversary of a 1947 massacre by nationalist troops. (AFP / PATRICK LIN)

Photos show communist executions and war dead, not Taiwan's 1947 massacre

Published on March 15, 2025 at 06:07
3 min read
By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong

As Taiwan marked the 78th anniversary of a 1947 massacre by nationalist troops, two photos were shared in posts that falsely linked them to the bloody crackdown which eventually killed up to an estimated 28,000 people. The images in fact show an execution of communists in China in May 1949 and Filipino casualties on the first day of the Philippine-American war in February 1889.

Warning: graphic images

The two black-and-white photos were shared in an X post from February 28, 2025, with overlaid text that reads "1947 New York Times report on Taiwan's 228 massacre".

The images show bound and kneeling individuals being shot, and a ditch filled with dead bodies.

An estimated 28,000 people were killed in the 1947 crackdown -- also known as the "228 Incident" -- on island-wide riots after mainland troops were called in to quell the unrest under Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, whose Kuomintang (KMT) party governed Taiwan as part of China at the time (archived link).

The legacy of the massacre still lingers in Taiwan, which the Kuomintang ruled as a one-party authoritarian state until martial law was lifted in 1987.

"The New York Times exposes the evil deeds of the Kuomintang," reads the photos' shared caption.

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Screenshot of the false X post, captured on March 13, 2025

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The photos were also shared hundreds of times elsewhere on Facebook and Threads.

But the images were taken neither in 1947 nor in Taiwan.

A keyword search of the New York Times' archives found several contemporaneous reports about the 1947 crackdown, but none of the articles contained the photos circulating online (archived here and here).

'Execution of communists'

A reverse image search on Google found the photo of individuals being shot on the website of Getty Images, where it was credited to photo agency Gamma-Keystone (archived link).

The photo is titled "Execution Of Communists In Shanghai, 1949". Its description says it was taken on May 13, 1949 in Shanghai and shows five Chinese people who were found guilty of "subversive political activity" as the city defended itself against advancing communist armies.

"This execution followed the traditional method of shooting prisoners in the back, as their arms were tied to a stake on which a paper listed the crimes of which they were found guilty," it adds.

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared image (left) and the Getty Images photo (right)

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A further keyword search led to a similar photo taken by a Life magazine photographer, with its description on the Virtual Shanghai Project website saying the executions took place on the fire brigade's training grounds outside Shanghai (archived link).

Philippine-American war dead

A separate reverse image search found the photo of the ditch filled with dead bodies in the archives of British photo agency Alamy (archived link).

According to its description, the photo shows Filipino casualties in a trench near Santa Ana on the first day of the Philippine-American War, February 5, 1899.

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared photo (left) and the image from Alamy (right)

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The same image is available on the Getty Images' website, which describes the dead as "insurgents" and says it was taken on February 5, 1899 (archived link).

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