AI clip of 'Chinese government tearing down Tibetan temple' misleads online

"Evidence of the Chinese Communist Party's government's use of heavy machinery to destroy Tibetan temples and destroy Tibetan culture," reads a simplified Chinese X post shared on April 27.

The accompanying 15-second clip shows officials apparently giving instructions to an excavator operator attempting to destroy a Buddha statue outside a temple, with more debris littered in the foreground. 

Mandarin-speaking voices are heard saying, "Smash harder! Yes, don't hit the pillar behind you."

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Screenshot of the false X post, with a red X and an AI symbol added by AFP

Beijing, which in 1950 sent troops to the vast high-altitude plateau it calls an integral part of China, faces regular international criticism for restricting religious freedom, including in Tibet where spiritual practices and Buddhist leader appointments are strictly controlled (archived links here and here).

Rights groups say repression has increased in recent years and accuse China of trying to eradicate Tibetan identity and culture (archived link).

The Chinese government also exercises tight control over information to prevent independent reporting in Tibet, and state-owned media maintains a narrative focused on national unity. Meanwhile, research into political and human rights conditions in Tibet is extremely restricted(archived link).

The video of the purported demolition in Tibet spread across social media as Tibetans outside of China voted for the government-in-exile on April 26, with the claims also spreading in English, Japanese and Korean posts on X.

"Destruction of Tibetan Culture. Heartbreaking!" one user wrote.

"They claim 'One China' yet refuse to acknowledge diversity!" said another. 

Although Tibetan temples and monasteries were reduced to ruin during China's 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, and the destruction has continued in the decades that followed, the circulating clip is in fact AI-generated (archived link). 

An analysis by the Hive Moderation AI detection tool found the video was "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content". It identified Sora 2 -- Open AI's now-defunct video generation tool -- as the source (archived links here and here). The tool gives users the option to generate clips up to 15-seconds long.

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Screenshot of the Hive Moderation analysis result, with an AI label added and visual inconsistencies highlighted by AFP

The earliest version of the video online was shared by an X account that frequently posts anti-China content, often using other AI-generated images to illustrate genuine news events.

A close look of the video also reveals visual and logical inconsistencies that are characteristic of synthetic content.

The excavator operator tries and fails to lift a statue, but when it drops to the ground the debris beneath does not appear to react to the impact. In addition, text on the men's jackets are blurred and illegible.

A piece of a Buddha statue in the foreground appears to be a single leg with two feet attached, while the voices heard in the video appear to tell the excavator to be careful of a pillar behind it, though the video shows the building is in front of it.

The International Campaign for Tibet, a US-based non-profit advocacy group, told AFP on May 6 it did not recognise the building in the clip as distinctly Tibetan (archived link).

It noted that the Central Tibetan Administration, the region's government-in-exile, had reported the demolition of Buddhist stupas in Tibet in 2025, but the building in the video does not match those seen in the photo of the affected monasteries (archived link).

AFP has repeatedly debunked claims misusing AI-generated content.