Old footage misrepresented as Indonesia sinking Chinese boat
- Published on December 26, 2025 at 09:32
- 2 min read
- By Caroline LIN, AFP Hong Kong
The Indonesian government had previously sunk impounded foreign boats to deter illegal fishing in its waters, but the nation's marine affairs ministry in 2024 said the policy had been changed. Rumours online claimed a Chinese vessel was recently blown up, but the posts feature old footage from reports about the demolition of boats from multiple countries, none of which were identified as Chinese.
"Indonesia has started bombing Chinese vessels illegally fishing in its waters," reads a post shared on Threads on December 17, 2025.
The accompanying 10-second video depicts an offshore explosion, with a news chyron stating fishing boats were sunk across Indonesia.
Similar posts were shared elsewhere on Facebook and X, and appeared to have misled social media users.
"Great work Indonesia! Teach China a lesson!" one commenter wrote. Another user said: "The Philippines should also follow Indonesia's response."
Indonesia had previously sunk foreign vessels seized for fishing in its waters illegally -- including a Chinese boat in 2015 that prompted protests from Beijing (archived link).
But according to local media, the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries has adopted new policies in handling illegal foreign fishing vessels, including renovating seized boats and donating them to local fishers (archived link).
"We will no longer blow and sink vessels engaged in IUUF (unreported and unregulated fishing), which poses environmental risks in the waters," Lotharia Latif, the ministry's director general for capture fisheries, was quoted in a report from the national news agency Antara in December 2024 (archived link).
According to a ministry press release, 191 illegal foreign fishing vessels were captured between 2020 and 2025. Only one vessel seizure that happened in 2025 involved a Chinese boat, with no official reports indicating it had been blown up (archived link).
Moreover, a reverse image search using keyframes from the circulating clip led to a 22-second video news report from Turkish public broadcaster TRT World on February 22, 2016 (archived here and here).
According to the narration, Indonesian authorities demolished dozens of vessels at five different locations across the country on that day.
Corresponding reports from the same day indicate the empty fishing vessels were from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar. There was no mention of Chinese boats (archived here and here).
AFP has previously debunked other false claims about Chinese vessels.
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