AI clip of Taiwan flag near Tiananmen Square misleads online
- Published on November 18, 2025 at 06:05
- 3 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, with the tensions between the two fuelling a persistent wave of misinformation online. Chinese-language posts have recently shared a video they falsely claimed depicted a delivery rider flying the Taiwanese flag near Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Many social media users believed the clip was genuine but an analysis found it was in fact AI-generated.
"This mainland Chinese delivery guy is truly brave, passing by Tiananmen Square in Beijing with the flag of the democratic Republic of China," says a November 12, 2025 X post, referring to Taiwan's official name.
The featured clip, which has been watched over 900,000 times, appears to depict a scene near Tiananmen Square.
"Wow look at the flag. This brother is brave. Terrific. We will remember you. Thank you brother," a voice is heard in the background.
The dispute between Beijing and Taipei dates back to 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces lost a civil war to Mao Zedong's communist fighters and fled to Taiwan (archived link).
China and Taiwan have been ruled separately ever since, but Beijing has refused to rule out the use of force to seize the island.
Similar posts have also appeared on TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.
While some users doubted the authenticity of the video, others appeared to believe it was authentic.
"Mainland China is so free, waving the five-star red flag in Taipei would immediately get you arrested," one said sarcastically. "Great move; thumbs up," another comment read.
Chinese troops and tanks forcibly dispersed peaceful protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, quelling weeks-long demonstrations demanding greater political freedoms (archived link).
The exact toll is unknown but hundreds died, with some estimates exceeding 1,000 people. China's communist rulers have since sought to erase any public mention of the crackdown.
However, an analysis of the video found several visual inconsistencies that are hallmarks of AI.
The rider's uniform and thermal bag are similar to that of Meituan, one of China's biggest delivery service providers by revenue (archived link).
But the kangaroo logos on the bag, the uniform, and the helmet are distorted. Photos taken by AFP show that helmets worn by Meituan's riders do not have kangaroo logos.
Instead of "Meituan takeaway", the bag has the words "Meituantuan takeawayaway". The licence plate on the motorcycle is blurred.
Moreover, the Tiananmen Square shown in the clip has features that do not resemble the actual one.
A photo of the site distributed by AFP in July 2025 shows that there are yellow fences in front of the gate, while the fences in the clip are white.
The traffic lanes in the clip also do not match the ones shown in street view imagery on Baidu Maps (archived link). Some incomprehensible Chinese characters also appear at the bottom of the video towards the end.
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about Taiwan-China relations.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
