A video on YouTube and Facebook claims that United States (U.S.) President-elect Donald Trump burned a Chinese flag, supposedly as revenge for the Philippines. This is a clickbait and the photos used in the videos are edited.
Uploaded on Nov. 18, the video’s headline read:
“BREAKING!🔴DONALD TRUMP GALIT NA GALIT SA CHINA PINAGSUSUNOG SINIRA WATAWAT NG CHINA:🔴PH NAKAGANTI (Donald Trump was really mad at China! He burned and destroyed a Chinese flag. PH had taken revenge)!
Its thumbnail also bore photos of Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and a flag burning amidst a crowd, along with the text: “CHINA NAGULAT SA GINAWA NI TRUMP! WATAWAT NG CHINA PINAGSISIRA NI DONALD TRUMP; SA WAKAS PILIPINAS NAKAGANTI NA RIN SA CHINA (China was shocked with what Trump did! China’s flag was destroyed by Donald Trump; the Philippines has finally taken revenge against China)!”
This is a clickbait. The video talked about the trending news of a potential tension between China and the US following the return of Trump to the White House.
At the 3:43 mark, the video narrator talked about anti-China protests in the US where some of the protesters trampled on and burned the Chinese flag. It alleged that Trump was behind the protests.
It showed an altered version of an MSNBC news article with this headline: “Donald Trump is behind the burning of Chinese flags by some protesters.”
However, the original article from the MSNBC website published on July 27 actually reports about Trump’s plans to make burning of the American flag a crime. Its original headline read:
“Trump wants to criminalize flag-burning. Here’s why that’s un-American.”
There have been no reports from credible news sources that Trump has burned China’s Five-star Red Flag. The edited thumbnail photo included a red banner and a star to mimic the Chinese flag.
Reverse image search revealed that the original picture taken by Reuters on July 24 shows an American flag being burned by Pro-Palestine protesters during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington D.C.
The video emerged after Xi told outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden during their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Peru that “China is willing to work with the new U.S. administration to expand cooperation and manage differences” between the two superpowers.
Uploaded by YouTube channel Summit Media Philippines (created Feb. 8, 2022), the erroneous video received 49,882 interactions. FB page Summit Media Philippines (created July 1, 2020 as California Fresh Philippines) also reposted the clip.
