Unrelated Photo Shared as Chinese Athletes Wearing Palestinian Flag's Colours

This photo is from a VOGUE photo shoot, which was dedicated to the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023.

A photo of a woman wearing red, green, and black with a white background is going viral to claim that this is the outfit of Chinese athletes for the Paris Olympics 2024, which was "inspired" by the Palestinian flag.

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This image is from a VOGUE photo shoot, which was dedicated to the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 and is unrelated to Palestine.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on the viral image which led us to a post on X (formerly Twitter) which was shared on 20 August 2023, before the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine began.

• The caption stated that this shows He Cong, a Chinese supermodel on the cover of VOGUE China.

he cong for vogue china, wearing robert run ss23 couture, styled by vivienen sun and photographed by leslie zhang jiacheng pic.twitter.com/3CS14OvRti

— DIDU (@muglare) August 20, 2023

• Taking a cue, we performed a relevant keyword search on Google which led us to a website Design Scene, carrying photos and details of this story.

• It stated that VOGUE China dedicated its September 2023 edition to "the spirit of athleticism" to honour the celebration of Hangzhou Asian Games.

• We also found the cover story on VOGUE China's website which included the viral photo along with several other images of Hong.

• Neither of the articles not mention about the photo shoot being inspired or dedicated to Palestine.

• Moreover, another similar photo also shows blue colour, which isn't a part of Palestinian flag.

• We also checked Hong's Instagram where she shared the cover photo of VOGUE China and specified how it was dedicated to Asian Games.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 贺聪👧🏻🇨🇳 (@heconghc)

• We also found more visuals on VOGUE China's Instagram page, where the captions mentioned that the inspiration was the Asian Games but nothing about Palestine.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VOGUE CHINA (@voguechina)

So what was the actual outfits of Chinese athletes?: The official outfits carry red and white colours.

• We found an image from the Paris Olympics' official Instagram account showing them in bright red coats and white trousers or skirts.

• We also found a picture of their complete outfits on Getty Images.

• Further, we also checked the Chinese team's official outfits on Getty Images and found one with a white jacket and red trousers and another one with a medal ceremony uniform with white t-shirts and red trousers.

• None of them resembled the Palestinian flag, nor did it mention anything about it.

Conclusion: An old photo from a VOGUE is being falsely shared as an outfit of Chinese athletes based on the Palestinian flag for the Paris Olympics.

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