Old Video of Chinese Prez at Mosque Revived Amid Coronavirus Scare
In the video, Xi Jinping can be seen in a mosque, interacting with some men and shaking their hands.
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CLAIM
A video of Chinese President Xi Jinping is being shared with the claim that he visited a mosque and “sought the blessings of the Muslim community” amid the coronavirus outbreak.
This is the caption of the video: “China president xi jinping visited masjid and request Muslims for dua in present crisis country going through. we need your help (sic).”
The context of the video — the “present crisis” referred to in the caption — is the outbreak of coronavirus in China and elsewhere.
In the video, Xi can be seen in a mosque, interacting with some men and shaking hands with them.
The video had over 9,700 views and 1000 shares at the time this article was published.
The video went viral on Facebook and Twitter and is being shared with the same claim.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim with which the video is being shared is false. While the video does show Xi Jinping visiting a mosque, this visit took place in July 2016 when the Chinese President was on a fact-finding tour of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China. It has no connection whatsoever with the current coronavirus outbreak.
WHAT WE FOUND
Upon examining the video carefully, The Quint noticed the words CCTV+ on the top-right corner of the frame. In the photo below, it is circled in red.
We then ran a search and found that CCTV+ is a part of the state-owned video news agency, China Central Television.
We then ran a Google search with the keywords ‘Xi Jinping visits mosque CCTV+’, which led us to the same video, uploaded by CCTV+ on 20 July 2016, with the title ‘Chinese President Visits Big Mosque in Northwest China’.
According to the description of the video, the Chinese President paid a special visit to the Xincheng Mosque in Yinchuan City, during a fact-finding tour of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China.
The description then goes on to say that Xi interacted with imams (priests) and followers of Islam inside the mosque.
We also found a news article on the same visit to Ningxia by CCTV.com, which mentioned that Xi had visited a mosque during his tour.
The photo was captioned ‘Chinese President Xi Jinping talks with local muslims at Xincheng Mosque in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, July 19, 2016’ and was credited to China-based news agency Xinhua.
Therefore, it is clear that this video has nothing to do with the coronavirus outbreak and is being shared with a false claim.
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