Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
Claim
Chinese president Xi Jinping visited a mosque and requested Muslims to pray for the current coronavirus outbreak and its containment.
Verification
A video has gone viral in many WhatsApp groups and social media which claimed that the Chinese president Xi Jinping visited a mosque in China after apparently realizing that only Allah can save China from this epidemic. The viral message also claims that the Chinese President has decided to translate the Islamic Holy book Quran. China is currently in the midst of managing the coronavirus outbreak. So are these claims therefore true?
Coronavirus, an epidemic that has caused a serious threat to humanity, has also been the topic of rampant misinformation. While China is the most affected country, many confirmed cases have been reported from the other parts of the world as well. Fact-checking agencies across the globe are doing their bit by fighting misinformation related to the coronavirus. If you’re active on social media, it is highly unlikely that you wouldn’t have seen either a verified or an unverified video related to coronavirus. The claims are mostly emotional or instructional in nature and since the language is mostly Chinese, many are sharing these claims with no idea of what’s being said in the video or how it can lead to a panic situation.
The intensity of one such claim can be viewed here.
So, in the first phase of our investigation, we generated the keyframes of the video so we can perform Reverse Image Search and bring the truth to the surface. As we reverse searched the first keyframe generated by the external tool, we were exposed to the truth that the video marks its very presence on the internet well before the novel coronavirus was found. The same video was uploaded on YouTube on Jul 20, 2016.
One thing is pretty evident from the above video that Xi Jinping’s mosque visit, as stated in the claim, has nothing to do with coronavirus as the video dates back to 2016. Now, in order to get more information on the video, we searched Google with the combination of different keywords. We didn’t get much authentic information but similar claims which were shared by social media users and YouTube publishers.
When we searched social media for more such claims, we found a very strange manner in which these claims are being shared on social media. The same claim has gone viral with a video in which Former Malaysian Prime Minister could be seen paying a visit to a mosque in China.
The intensity of this claim can be viewed here.
The aforementioned claim has been previously debunked by our team.
کیا چین کے وزیراعظم نے کروناوائرس سے بچنے کےلئے پڑھی نماز!وائرل دعوے کا کیا ہے سچ؟پڑھیئے ہماری تحقیق
یوٹیوب پر ملی جانکاری کے بعد ہم نے مختلف کیورڈ کا سہارا لیا۔جہاں ہمیں دونوں ہی ویڈیو ملے۔ایک ویڈیو ایسوسی ایٹ پریس کے آرکائیو یوٹیوب چینل پر ملا۔جو بیس جولائی دوہزار پندرہ کا تھا۔جس کے مطابق ملیشیاء کے سابق وزیراعظم عبداللہ احمد بداوی چین کا پانچ روزہ دورہ کیاتھا۔اس دوران انہوں نے بیجنگ کے نان ضیاپو مسجد میں نماز جمعہ ادا کیاتھا۔ – کیا چین کے وزیراعظم نے کروناوائرس سے بچنے کےلئے پڑھی نماز!وائرل دعوے کا کیا ہے سچ؟پڑھیئے ہماری تحقیق
As we found the intensity of this claim to be very high, we further went on to collect more information on the viral video. We found multiple media reports which state the same information as reported in the 2016 video uploaded by CCTV Video News Agency.
Xi urges Muslims to merge faith, culture|Government|chinadaily.com.cn
Updated: 2016-07-21 08:57 President notes during tour of Ningxia how living conditions have improved. President Xi Jinping is encouraging Muslims to practice their religion as part of Chinese society, to adhere to Chinese direction, resist illegal religious infiltration and carry forward the patriotic tradition.
Xi urges inclusive development on Ningxia tour
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the CMC, meets with officers of the PLA stationed in Ningxia in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, July 19, 2016.
Xi visits mosque in NW China’s Ningnia
2016-07-19 23:10:46 GMT 2016-07-20 07:10:46(Beijing Time) Sina English President Xi Jinping paid a visit to the Xincheng Mosque in Yinchuan city, capital of NW China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Tuesday, July 19, 2016. Xi exchanged well wishes with Muslim experts in the mosque and asked them to play a positive role in social development.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Mosque in Western Chinahttps://t.co/luMbObCVbA pic.twitter.com/KfMaT8WZhO
— Siasat.pk (@siasatpk) July 22, 2016
The claim ‘Chinese President paid a visit to a mosque to seek protection from coronavirus’ is false
As we found the same exact video on YouTube which was uploaded on Jul 20, 2016, it is evident that it has nothing to do with Xi Jinping visiting the mosque for the coronavirus outbreak as it was uploaded much before that. We also found several media reports published in July 2016 that support the information provided in the 2016 YouTube video so we have reached the conclusion that the viral claim is ‘False’ and the other video in which it is claimed that the Chinese President went to a mosque to offer prayers is ‘Misleading’ as the person in the video is not Chinese President Xi Jinping but former Malaysian PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Sources
- Google Search
- InVid
- Twitter Advanced Search
- Reverse Image Search
Result: Misleading
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Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
