Italians Sing Chinese Song To Thank China For COVID-19 Aid? Not Really

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube alongside a claim it shows Italian nationals expressing their gratitude to China for providing aid during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The claim is false; the video shows a Belarusian band singing a Chinese song several months before COVID-19 was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The video was published here on Facebook on March 23, 2020. It has been viewed more than 42,000 times.

The three-minute 27-second video shows a group of five Caucasian men singing an acapella version of the Chinese song "Qinghai-Tibet Plateau".

Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

The post's simplified Chinese caption translates into English as: "To express thanks to Chinese people for their help, Italians sang 'Qinghai-Tibet Plateau' in Chinese language".

As of April 6, the novel coronavirus has killed at least 15,887 people in Italy.

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The video was also shared here, here and here on Facebook, here, here and here on Twitter, and here and here on YouTube, alongside a similar claim.

The claim is false. A keyword search on Google found an identical video posted on the YouTube channel of a Belarusian band, Clear Voice, on August 26, 2019.

The video is titled: "Чистый голос - 青藏高原 - Qinghai - Tibetan Plateau - Тибетское плато (a cappella)".

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The same video was also published on the quintet's official Instagram account here on August 30, 2019.

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