Old Photo of Chinese Prez Xi Jinping Viral Amid Rumours of Him Having a Stroke

A photo showing Chinese President Xi Jinping, sitting a table with his eyes squeezed shut, has gone viral on social media.

• This photo is being shared after unverified rumours of Xinping having suffered a stroke during a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meeting emerged on the internet.

The claim: The photo is being shared along with text about the Chinese president's rumoured stroke, which he is claimed to have had during the Third Plenum if the CCP's recent meeting in July 2024.

(Archives of more posts linking this photo to the rumour can be seen here and here.)

But...?: The image has no connection to the rumours.

• It dates back to March 2024, and show Xinping reacting after sipping from a cup during a session of the National People's Congress.

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How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the viral image using TinEye, which led us to the same photo on stock image website Alamy.

The text accompanying the image mentioned that it showed Xinping 'reacting' "after drinking from a cup," adding that the photo was taken on 11 March 2024.

It had credited the photograph to news agency Associated Press (AP).

We looked for the same photo using a date filter on AP's website, and found that it had been shared with the same caption and date stamp.

• A video of the event shared on AP's verified YouTube channel showed Xinping behaving normally during the event, confirming that he did not show any signs of poor health on that day.

• Visuals of Xinping standing, clapping, and speaking can be seen between the 3:10 and four minutes marks in this video.

Recent visuals: China's state-run China Global Network Television shared a video of Xinping on 20 July, which showed him standing and bowing.

• In the video, Xinping offered condolences after the demise of former Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong.

Conclusion: An old photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping has gone viral amid rumours of him having had a stroke.

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