A video posted on Facebook (FB) supposedly shows “a Chinese ship” sunk by the United States and Japan. This is false and contains spliced clips from various military exercises.
Uploaded on May 15, the one-minute video featured several clips of military forces in action. It started with a snippet of a missile launched from a vessel which then supposedly hit and sank a Chinese ship. The video bore the text:
“Pinalubog ng USA JAPAN ang barko ng china huy grabe trip nyo hah. Dipanga handa china eh hahaha sabog tuloy (The USA and JAPAN sunk a Chinese ship. Their trip is severe. China was not ready and ended up being blasted).”
A TikTok user first posted the video on March 19 with the same claim.
The two ships in the video were American-owned vessels and destroyed as part of military exercises. Unrelated clips were stitched together to fool netizens.
One of the snippets shows the decommissioned United States ship Rodney M. Davis destroyed by Australia, Canada, Malaysia and the U.S. forces during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022 military exercise held around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.
The other ship shown in the video was the U.S. Naval Ship Kilauea blasted by the Australian forces in a sink exercise during the RIMPAC 2012 in the Pacific Ocean.
The video also featured clips of U.S. and Japan‘s military capabilities.
The false video was first posted on TikTok two weeks after China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia ships again harassed and used water cannons against a Philippine Coast Guard vessel on a resupply mission to the Ayungin Shoal.
It resurfaced on FB a week after the U.S. and Philippine forces sank BRP Lake Caliraya, a decommissioned China-made Philippine Navy ship, during this year’s Balikatan exercises.
VERA Files has repeatedly debunked various mis- and disinformation related to the West Philippine Sea dispute. (Read China DID NOT sink Pinoy boats in Scarborough Shoal)
The reel uploaded by an FB user garnered 2,500 reactions, 229 comments, 149 shares and 50,000 views. The copy posted by TikTok user @philippines_philippines also has 32,700 reactions, 1,417 comments, 638 shares and 1,200,000 views.
Have you seen any dubious claims, photos, memes, or online posts that you want us to verify? Fill out this reader request form or send it to VERA, the truth bot on Viber.
(Editor's Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)