A video on Facebook and YouTube purports to show billionaire businessman Jack Ma praising China’s response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
The video shows\xa0\xa0Jack Ma,\xa0founder of the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba., It includes\xa0a Mandarin Chinese voiceover and subtitles playing throughout. It also features the logo for Douyin, the Chinese version of video-sharing app TikTok., Part of the voiceover translates to English as: “The greatness of China lies in the fact that we not only controlled the domestic epidemic situation over the country with 1.4 billion people, but more importantly, China has done something that impressed the world today. The state has each province support a country, so Jiangsu supports Pakistan, Shanghai supports Iran, Guangdong supports Iraq, and Sichuan supports Italy. I still remember that when a Chinese person was handing out masks in the streets of Italy ten days ago, he was even dismissed. Today in Italy, all the media groups praise China in full newspaper versions. The strength of Chinese people no longer stands for GDP growth, but the unity of our 1.4 billion people and the responsibility the country has taken for the world.”, "The video’s simplified Chinese caption translates to English as: “Jack Ma praised Chinas efforts to prevent the global\xa0epidemic! Excellent! Nice!”", Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:, During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Ma\xa0has donated test kits and facemasks to affected countries, including the United States,\xa0through his foundation., As of March 22, 2020, COVID-19 has killed more than 13,444 people and infected 306,130 others worldwide, according to this AFP report., The video was also shared here on Facebook and here on YouTube, with a similar claim., The claim is false., Closer examination of the video shows Ma is standing in front of a screen with simplified Chinese characters that read “Alibaba alumni meeting” and “2018”., Below are two screenshots from the misleading video, with the identifiable characters circled in red by AFP:, A keyword search found\xa0this video of the third “Alibaba Alumni Meeting” in 2018, a gathering of former staffers, published on the video streaming platform 361t.org., Below is a screenshot comparison of the misleading video at the\xa052-second mark after it had been\xa0mirrored by AFP\xa0(L) and the 361t video at the\xa0two-hour 17-minute 33-second mark (R):, A further keyword search based on the voiceover heard in the misleading video found\xa0this Douyin video published on the account of\xa0Chinese businessman Chen Yifu, published on March 18, 2020. The voiceover\xa0heard in the misleading video directly corresponds with the Douyin video., Below is a screenshot of the video on the Douyin app:, , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
This video has been doctored -- it does not feature the voice of Chinese businessman Jack Ma | AFP Fact Check