Fabricated exchange at Chinese government briefing misleads online

"In a press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a foreign journalist asks the spokesperson: How does Communist China explain that, under a real-name registration system, telecom fraudsters are still able to use SIM cards for a long time?" reads part of the simplified Chinese X post shared November 6, 2025.

The post includes a 59-second video showing China's foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun flipping through papers before replying in Mandarin, "I am not familiar with what you mentioned. On fighting telecom fraud, China's position is consistent and clear."

China has required mobile phone SIM card buyers to register since 2010 to prevent spam and fraud (archived here and here). 

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Screenshot of the false X video captured on November 14, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The Bangkok Post and Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS reported on November 9 that a Chinese man was arrested on the Cambodia-Thailand border for carrying more than 1,000 SIM cards that he intended to bring to the town of Myawaddy in Myanmar (archived here and here).

Chinese outlets -- Yicai and the Economic Observer -- reported in January 2025 that scammers from telecom fraud compounds illegally obtained SIM cards from China (archived here and here). In the same month, China's Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong said authorities would intercept fraudulent calls and strictly control the source of SIM cards, according to Xinhua (archived here and here). 

Cyberscam hubs have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years, with an AFP investigation revealing Chinese workers in Myanmar swindling unsuspecting internet users with romance and business cons worth tens of billions of dollars annually (archived link).

Similar claims were shared elsewhere on X and Reddit, with social media users believing that the foreign ministry's purported response implies that the Chinese government supplies SIM cards to scam parks.

One commented in simplified Chinese, "A large number of unregistered SIM cards were tacitly allowed, even supported, by the Chinese Communist Party to be sent out. It's already fortunate that he didn't publicly admit the truth -- that we are essentially supporting Southeast Asia's telecom fraud industry."

Another said: "Yes, their stance has indeed been consistent because telecom fraud is essentially their tertiary industry."

But the video was clipped and the exchange is fabricated.

A keyword search on YouTube led to the original video uploaded by Hong Kong broadcaster TVB with a title in simplified Chinese, "Full Replay: January 9 Ministry of Foreign Affairs regular press conference" (archived link).

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Screenshot comparison of the false X video (L) and the original YouTube video (R)

At the 3:24 timestamp, an AFP reporter asked, "The Philippines has said that around 400 foreign nationals, many of whom were Chinese, were arrested yesterday in a large-scale raid on a suspected online scam farm in Manila. Can the foreign ministry comment on this and provide any more details? (archived link)"

Guo remained silent for almost a minute before replying with the remarks in the false post. 

Official transcript of the foreign ministry's press conference on the day shows the same exchange, and no reference was made to the real-time registration of SIM cards (archived link). 

The raid in the Philippine capital followed President Ferdinand Marcos's announcement in July 2024 to ban online gaming operators (Pogo) by the end of the year that Manila says have been used as cover by organised crime groups (archived link).

The Bureau of Immigration said in a statement on January 8 it had been monitoring the "Pogo-like activities" of the raided company "for some time" (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked misinformation about scam parks.