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  • 2019-06-18 (xsd:date)
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  • No, this is not a genuine newspaper front page saying 700,000 Hong Kongers support a controversial extradition bill (en)
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  • Multiple Facebook and Twitter posts have shared an image they claim shows a June 9, 2019 front page of China’s Global Times newspaper. The purported front page has a main headline that says that 700,000 people in Hong Kong support a law that would allow extradition to China, above a photo of a mass protest in the city. The claim is false; the front page has been doctored from a 2018 edition of the Global Times, with the headlines, image, and date changed. The photo on the doctored front page actually shows a June 9, 2019 protest in Hong Kong opposing the extradition law. The misleading image has been shared repeatedly on social media, for example in this Twitter post published June 9, 2019, which has been shared more than 100 times. The image shows a purported front page of the Global Times newspaper dated June 9, 2019 which has a large photograph of two Hong Kong streets packed with people. The main Chinese-language headline on the doctored front page, in red text, translates as: 700,000 Hong Kong compatriots support the extradition bill amendment. A second headline in black Chinese text, running vertically down the right-hand side of the image, translates as: Victory of Chinese-style democracy. Below is a screenshot of the misleading tweet: Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post The tweet’s Chinese-language caption says, in part: Oh my god, the Global Times can be shameless to this point? Absolutely beyond human imagination, it’s clear Hong Kong people joined the parade to oppose the extradition bill, but why is it described as a supportive act? Crazy. The Global Times is crazy. Not only are they crazy, but they also want to drive the whole world crazy. On June 9, 2019, a mass protest took place in Hong Kong against plans to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland. Organisers said more than a million people took part; here is an AFP report about the event. Dozens of people have shared the image of the doctored front page in other posts that also express anger towards the Global Times, for example here and here on Twitter, and here and here on Facebook. But the purported front page has been doctored -- the text of the article under the headline in the image is not about Hong Kong or the proposed extradition law. It is actually about an ex-CIA worker arrested for potential spy activities for China. The first two sentences of the article, translated to English, say: A former CIA worker was arrested at the airport when returning from Hong Kong to New York because he, after retirement, was still found illegally holding confidential information about CIA workers. This former Chinese American intelligence worker may be involved in a bigger conspiracy: since 2010, CIA's spy network in China has been systematically destroyed, and nearly 20 CIA informants have been killed or detained, and he may be the ‘inner ghost’ behind these things. A keyword search for Jerry Chun Shing Lee, the name of the ex-CIA worker mentioned in the article, led to international news reports such as this one by the New York Times on January 16, 2018, and this one by the South China Morning Post on January 17, 2018. Looking through Global Times front pages from that time period on Chinese online archive jdqu.com found this image of the edition dated January 18, 2018. Below is a screenshot of the original newspaper image: Screenshot of the original newspaper image The two headlines and the photo in the original image have been replaced in the doctored image. The original issue date has also been changed to June 9, 2019. The original headline translates to English as: China reluctantly involved as CIA catches their ‘inner ghost’. The photo in the original article, together with the vertical headline on the right, is about a foreign ministers’ meeting in Vancouver, Canada on safety issues in Korean Peninsula. The image below compares screenshots of the doctored cover (L) and the original cover (R): Comparison between screenshots of the doctored cover (L) and the original cover (R) The image of a Hong Kong street packed with people on the doctored front page is very similar to this image, published in the South China Morning Post on June 10, 2019. The SCMP image is captioned: Such was the size of the crowds, they were still flocking to the rallying point long after the first marchers had left, and the tail end of the rally was still in Causeway Bay as night fell. Causeway Bay is a district of Hong Kong. Below is a comparison of the image in the doctored front page (L) and the SCMP image showing the June 9, 2019 anti-extradition protest in Hong Kong (R): Comparison of the image in the doctored front page (L) and the SCMP image showing the June 9, 2019 anti-extradition protest in Hong Kong (R) (en)
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