Clip Of 2015 Tianjin Explosions Shared As Beijing Coup Against Xi Jinping
Rumours of coup d'état in China are unfounded and yet to be confirmed by any authentic sources, and is based largely on social media posts.
A video showing a series of massive explosions is being shared on the internet with the claim that it shows explosions in Beijing during a supposed coup d'état in China against President Xi Jinping.
BOOM found this claim to be false; the footage shows a series of massive explosions that happened in China's Tianjin port in 2015 and is unrelated to any recent event. Furthermore, rumours of coup d'état in China are unfounded and yet to be confirmed by any authentic sources, and is largely based on social media posts.
The rumours of coup d'état in China, and the house arrest of Chinese President Xi Jingping started spreading around the internet a day after China's Vice Minister of Public Security, Sun Lijun, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, for challenging Xi's authority, just weeks ahead of Communist Party leadership congress.
A Twitter user shared the footage with the caption, "#Beijing Footage of big explosions coming from #Beijing during the china coup against Xi Jinping? The video that is going viral on social media is true, can anyone tell ? #chinacoup #chinesecoup #china #XiJingping."
Click here to view an archive of the tweet.
The video was also shared on Facebook with a similar caption, claiming it was from Beijing during a coup d'état against Xi.
Click here to view the above post.
The video has been viral on Twitter with many users sharing it with the same claim.
Fact-Check
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral footage led us to a video uploaded on Dailymotion in 2015, that contained the exact same footage. The titled of the video read, "200 Tons TNT Equivalent Huge Explosion in Tianjin China."
We also found several news reports about the explosions at the Tianjin port. The Guardian reported that the explosions, which happened in August 2015 in a chemical warehouse, killed at least 173 people.
We also found a compilation of footage from the Tianjin explosions, where one of the videos matched the footage going viral with false claims of being from Beijing. At the 2:20 mark in the following video, you can see the footage which matches the viral clip.
The following comparison of keyframes from the viral video was found to be an exact match with the footage shared on Dailymotion and YouTube.
BOOM had debunked the same video earlier this year, when it was viral as a footage of Russian airstrike on Ukrainian power plant.
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