India Today Cartoon On Modi-Xi Kung Fu Gets Fake News Spin

A cartoon clip showing Chinese President Xi Jinping face-off against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the lines of the popular kung fu film 'The 36th Chamber of Shaolin' is being shared claiming that it was shown on Japanese television. The clip is actually from an Indian satirical news segment that runs on the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak.

In the 48 seconds cartoon clip, Xi Jinping and Modi fight off each other with Indian Prime Minister emerging victorious against China with the support of other state leaders including Russsian President Vladimir Putin, United States President Donald Trump, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.

The clip is being shared in the backdrop of a skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh on June 15-16, 2020 which left nearly 20 Indian soldiers dead and more injured. The clash between is said to be the worst escalation between the relations of the two countries in the recent times.

The video is being shared with the caption, "This was shown on Japan TV" making the false claim that Japanese TV channels broadcasted the cartoon.

Click here to view, and here for an archive.

On searching with the same caption, we found that the clip was viral on Facebook with the misleading caption.

Twitter

Click here to view, and here for an archive.

Click here to view, and here for an archive.

Also Read: No, Jianli Yang Did Not Say More Than 100 Chinese Soldiers Died In Galwan

FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the viral clip is from a 2.08 minutes video of the 'So Sorry' show by India Today and uploaded on the channel with the same name on June 27, 2020.

According to the description of the channel on YouTube, 'So Sorry' is an exclusive political cartoon series that focuses on political events in the news by the India Today Group (Aaj Tak, India Today).

The Aaj Tak logo can be seen in both the viral clip and the original video, which shows that the segment was aired on Aaj Tak and not a Japanese channel. On comparing both the clips it becomes clear that it is taken from the So Sorry segment titled, "36 का आंकड़ा" which idiom roughly translates to rivalry in English.

While the viral video shows the names of the world leaders as they first appear displayed in Japanese text, that is not how it appears in the original clip linked above.

On searching in Japanese with the relevant keywords like 'Modi' 'Xi Jinping' we found that the So Sorry clip was being shared by Japanese Twitter users appreciating it. The translation of the tweet reads, "The person who made this must have a genius sense! !! 🤣🤣🤣 [Anime "Xi Jinping and Modi prime minister, Kamehameha confrontation (Prime Minister Abe also appeared)"...."

This clip also has the Japanese text as in the viral clip. The tweet also links to a YouTube video uploaded on June 29, 2020, that has the same viral clip.

A look at the video shows the Aaj Tak logo in the clip with only the text in Japanese.

BOOM reached out to the YouTube channel 'アンティレッド' (Anti Red), which confirmed that the So Sorry video viral with Japanese text was added and uploaded by the channel.

"Yes, I added the Japanese subtitles, not only this video but many. Whenever I get interesting videos, I add Japanese subtitles and upload to spread in my Youtube channel for four months," the YouTuber told BOOM.

Also Read: Was Modi's Visit To Leh Hospital Staged? Army Rubbishes Claims

(Update: The article has been updated with a quote from the YouTube channel that created the subtitled video.)