Old video of Chinese, Philippine ships in South China Sea misrepresented as Bangladesh incident

Published on September 29, 2025 at 09:08
2 min read
By Rasheek MUJIB, AFP Bangladesh

As Bangladesh and the United States wrapped up joint air force drills in the port city of Chattogram in September, an old video circulated in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed a Chinese warship headed towards the South Asian nation during the exercise. However, the footage was shared by the Philippine coast guard in 2023 and shows Chinese ships blocking Filipino vessels near the disputed Scarborough Shoal.

"During the drill between the United States and Bangladesh, Chinese warships are seen approaching Bangladesh, which means India, China and the US could end up in conflict at any time," reads a Bengali-language Facebook post on September 20, 2025.

The accompanying 33-second video of uniformed personnel watching two larger ships spraying water jets at a smaller boat on the ocean has been viewed 12,000 times. The video's top-right corner features the logo of Bangladesh tabloid Daily Manab Zamin.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken September 24, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Bangladesh and the United States concluded the seven-day "Operation Pacific Angel 25-3" on September 18, with drills focusing on air, ground and medical emergency operations, according to authorities (archived link).

The same video surfaced elsewhere on Facebook with a similar claim it showed a Chinese ship approaching Bangladesh.

However, the footage is old and was shot in a disputed area of the South China Sea.

Keyword searches found the video was shared by the Daily Manab Zamin on September 16, with captions that said it depicted how the Chinese coast guard fired water cannons at a Philippine ship (archived link).

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video led to an X post on December 9, 2023, on the official account of Jay Tarriela, the spokesperson for the Philippine Coast Guard (archived link).

The post accused the Chinese coast guard of using water cannons to "obstruct" three government boats delivering provisions to Filipino fishermen near the China-controlled Scarborough Shoal, off the coast of Luzon.

The incident at the reef was also reported by AFP at the time (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the X video (right)

China snatched control of Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012 following a tense standoff.

Since then, Beijing -- which claims nearly the entirety of the South China Sea -- has deployed patrol boats that Manila says harass Philippine vessels and prevent Filipino fishermen from reaching the lagoon, where fish are more plentiful.

The Philippines Coast Guard subsequently shared another video of the altercation taken from a different angle on its official Facebook page on December 12, 2023 (archived link).

The video also shows people wearing a jacket with "MMOV" written on the back, which refers to the Multi-Mission Offshore Vessels operated by the Philippines' Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (archived here and here).

Screenshot featuring 'MMOV' logo in the X post by the Philippines Coast Guard

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail