No, this is not a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping being welcomed to Manila with a banner saying the Philippines is a "province of China"

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on November 22, 2018 at 16:23
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Philippines

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Multiple Facebook pages have posted a photo that purportedly shows Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte and other officials greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Manila with a banner that declares their nation a “province of China”. The post is false and uses an altered photo to mislead.

Facebook posts such as this and this shared the photo as Xi made a state visit to the Philippines on November 20-21.

The nations’ relations are a controversial issue for some in the Philippines, where critics allege Duterte has not been assertive enough in challenging Beijing over rival claims to parts of the South China Sea.

Here is a screenshot of one of the posts:

The picture shows the Philippine officials and Xi behind the red banner, with a caption that says: “Official Welcome Ceremony in Malacañang”.

Malacañang is the official residence of the Philippine president in Manila.

A reverse search shows the image, minus the banner, was posted on Twitter by the Duterte’s then-spokesman Harry Roque on November 11, 2017.

It shows Duterte and other Philippine officials with Xi at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Vietnam in November 2017. Here is a Philippine press report on that event that included the photo posted by Roque.

Banners very similar to the one included in the altered photo popped up in public places around Manila on July 12.

That was the second anniversary of a landmark international tribunal’s ruling in 2016 against China’s expansive claims to the South China Sea.

It was a victory for Manila, but Duterte set aside the ruling in favour of pursuing investment and business ties with Beijing.

The misleading image has been shared by groups that oppose Duterte.

While some people who viewed the posts wrote comments to indicate they believed the photo was manipulated to make a political statement, others indicated they believed it was true.

One comment below: “See... province of China….”.

Another, when translated to English, says: “Is this real? If it is. This is clearly treason!"

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