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China

Misleading 

Misleading: These rescue photos do not show Vietnamese working for ‘illegal islands’ in the South China Sea

12 January 202116 February 2021 Xiaodong Xue China, Cua Viet channel, Paracel, South China Sea, Spratlys, typhoon Linfa, Vietnam, Vietship01, VnExpress 3 min read

The crew members had been stranded on a grounded dredger for three days that had just completed a construction work in the Cua Viet channel.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at Japan’s airports does not correspond to domestic cases in China

8 January 202116 February 2021 Yujie Wang #Japan, America, China, COVID-19 4 min read

Annie Lab found the popular online calculation has no validity. Three datasets do not show what the claim implied at all.

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rumor investigation
Investigation 

Investigation: Death of a mother and newborn baby neglected by a game-addicted husband — a recycled tale since 2017

30 December 202016 February 2021 Christina Chan baby parenting forum, China, content farm, SingTao, Taiwan, The Reporter 4 min read

This unsubstantiated story is not new. It is a variation of an anecdote that has been recycled again and again by content farms since 2017.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This video does not show China using a large sonic gun to harass Indian soldiers

9 November 202016 February 2021 Hanzi Duan China, China-India border, India, Sonic gun 1 min read

The original video was produced in 2016. It shows a fire alarm, not a sonic gun. It has nothing to do with the China-India conflict in 2020.

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False 

False: This photo does not show 12 arrested Hong Kongers being led into a courthouse in Shenzhen

24 October 202016 February 2021 Fengjiaxin Li China, Fact Checking, Fugitive, Hong Kong, Shenzhen 1 min read

The image shows seven defendants charged with drug-related crimes walking into the courthouse of Taihe County, Anhui province.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Video of wall collapsing in flood was shot in Indonesia, not China

17 August 202018 February 2021 Judy Kwong 鄺苑楓 AHA Centre, Chief Climate Service Specialist, China, floods, Jakarta, West Java, Zhou Bing 1 min read

The video was taken in January in West Java, Indonesia, during heavy rainfall.

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COVID-19 No evidence 

No evidence: China is not suspending passport renewal to force Chinese nationals overseas to return

30 July 202018 February 2021 Lucy Zhang 张涵 China, Chinese Visa Application Service Centers, COVID-19, Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, passport 4 min read

Dozens of Chinese embassies around the world are not processing passport renewals due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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False 

False: Image of flooded dormitory room is old and digitally manipulated

16 July 202018 February 2021 Stephanie Chan 陳諾 China, flood, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam 1 min read

The objects in the water appear to have been digitally added as many of them are identical duplicates.

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Misleading 

Misleading: City engulfed in flood waters in popular video is not Chongqing, China

7 July 202018 February 2021 Stephanie Chan 陳諾 China, Chongqing, flood, Genoa, Italy 1 min read

The video was taken in Genoa, Italy, either in 2011 or earlier. It was not filmed this year, or in 2019 or 2014.

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Misleading 

Misleading: Satellite images of warped Three Gorges Dam in China are not accurate

26 June 202019 February 2021 Lucy Zhang 张涵 China, China Academy of Building Research, satellite images, Three Gorges Dam 2 min read

The “distortion problem” is a common phenomenon. Those images are a mosaic of satellite and aerial photographs taken on different dates.

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Verified 

Verified: Popular People’s Daily tweet supporting LGBTQ in China is real but was taken down

11 June 202019 February 2021 Natsuki Arita 有田夏喜 China, International Day Against Homophobia, LGBTQ, People's Daily, Pride March 2 min read

The tweet was later taken down but a screen capture of the English message posted on Weibo was widely shared in China.

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Analysis 

Analysis: Japan’s reported refusal to condemn China contradicts earlier statement expressing ‘serious concerns’ over national security law

10 June 202019 February 2021 Stephanie Chan 陳諾 #Japan, A.C. Milan, China, Hong Kong, Keisuke Honda, national security law 2 min read

Japanese government earlier issued a statement expressing ‘serious concerns’ over China’s decision to impose a national security law in HK.

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Analysis 

Analysis: Man yelling in Mandarin outside White House unlikely to be a protester

3 June 202019 February 2021 Ada Jiang 姜琦 CCTV, China, Chinese Communist Party, Liberty Times, Wang Shuguang 1 min read

The man appears to be part of a TV crew from China, covering the protest.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: Popular freedom of speech quote in China and Hong Kong is not from Plato

28 May 202019 February 2021 Cheryl Ho China, Li Wenliang, Plato, Republic, Weibo, Zhang Xuezhong 2 min read

The passage was likely to be taken from an essay by Zhang Xuezhong, an outspoken Chinese scholar critical of the government.

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COVID-19 Investigation 

Investigation of conspiracy narratives: Virus mutations and the US origin of COVID-19

18 May 202019 February 2021 Cheryl Ho China, Conspiracy Theories, COVID-19, Fact Checking, In English 7 min read

Research on virus mutations has been misinterpreted while conspiracies and propaganda spread in China.

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Misleading 

Misleading: This video does not show China’s Three Gorges Dam collapsing

27 March 202019 February 2021 Nina Milhaud China, CNN, Epoch Times, Falun Gong, Hubei, Preonzo, Swiss Broadcasting, Switzerland, Three Gorges Dam, Yangtze River 1 min read

It took place in southern Switzerland in 2012. Some 300,000 cubic meters of rock crashed 1,000 meters down to the valley floor.

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COVID-19 False 

False: This video does not show a WHO official touching a female conference attendee in China

11 March 202019 February 2021 Annie Lab Team China, Covid 19, Fact Checking, featured, In English, World Health Organization 1 min read

The man is a Nobel Prize laureate in physics, attending a conference with his significant other who was having a sore back.

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COVID-19 False 

False: This video does not show an anti-China rally in Italy

5 March 202019 February 2021 Li Chen China, Coronaviruses, COVID-19, Italy, Pagella Politica, Rome, Valerio Verbano 1 min read

It was an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Valerio Verbano, an Italian left-wing activist murdered in 1980.

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False 

FALSE: This video does not show a fake, man-made egg

3 March 202019 February 2021 Cheryl Ho China, eggs, fake eggs 1 min read

These components are all natural constituents of an egg.

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COVID-19 Misleading 

Misleading: These charts about COVID-19 contain inaccurate medical information

21 February 202019 February 2021 Cheryl Ho China, Coronaviruses, COVID-19, Phoenix TV, The Lancet, Wuhan 2 min read

Self-diagnosis based on these charts could be harmful.

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Annie lab newsroom is a fact-checking project at the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong (HKU Journalism), in collaboration with ANNIE (Asian Network of News & Information Educators), a not-for-profit educational organization that promotes news literacy in Asia through collaborative curriculum development.

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