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| - Fact Check: Viral photo of young Nancy Pelosi and Chinese journalist is edited
US Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chinese journalist Hu Xijin are not friends. Their old images were stitched together and shared with a false claim.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral photo of Nancy Pelosi and Hu Xijin is edited. Two separate photos were stitched together to give them the appearance of one single photo.
Amid escalating diplomatic and military tensions between the US and China over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent Taiwan visit, a photo allegedly featuring a young Pelosi and a senior Chinese journalist has gone viral.
"When they were young: Nancy Pelosi and Hu Xijin,” the caption of one such post read. Xijin is the former editor-in-chief of China's Global Times newspaper. As per media reports, Xijin had recently deleted a tweet where he warned of retaliation if Pelosi visited Taiwan.
“If Pelosi really visits Taiwan as planned, the Tsai Ing-wen [Taiwanese] authorities are accomplices,” he reportedly tweeted.
“The mainland will definitely carry out severe punishment actions on Taiwan at the same time. The unbearable consequences will fall on Tsai authorities.”
AFWA’s investigation found that the viral photo was heavily edited. An archived version of the post can be seen here.
AFWA PROBE
We reverse searched the photos of the two people separately and found the original sources for both. And they were both the younger selves of the two public figures.
We found Pelosi’s picture in a group photo uploaded by her on Flickr. In this photo, she can be spotted third from the left. The caption of the photo reads, “With family as a young girl.” The same photo has also appeared on one of her campaign pages.
The Global Times commentator, Xijin, shared his photo on Twitter on August 1, 2020.
While celebrating the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Xijin shared the photo with the caption, “Today is the anniversary of the founding of the PLA. I had been serving in the military for 11 years in my 20s. I remember being educated constantly that we are soldiers of the people. I never fought in a war, but often helped farmers nearby in harvest season. Unforgettable years”.
Thus, it is clear that two different photos have been stitched together to create this viral photo. And this photo is not evidence of a years-long friendship between Pelosi and the Chinese journalist.
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