Claim: Photos show the moment Chinese President Xi Jinping suffered a stroke.
Fact: There are no verifiable reports that President Xi suffered a stroke during the Chinese Communist Party’s third plenary session. Two of the accompanying photos are from March 2024; one of them shows his reaction after drinking from a cup and the second depicts attendants preparing the Chinese leader’s desk before the event, according to different news agencies that captured the image. The third is from a signing ceremony in April 2023.
On 17 July 2024, X (formerly Twitter) user @warintel4u posted (archive) an image showing Chinese President Xi Jinping with his eyes squeezed shut as he holds a cup. The accompanying caption reads as follows:
“#BREAKING China’s President, Xi Jinping, has suffered a stroke during the Third Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese Human Rights reporter, Jennifer Zhang, claims the ‘brain’ stroke was ‘massive’ and Xi Jinping is now in a ‘critical condition’”
In another X post, a second image shared in connection with the one above shows two women and is accompanied by a caption claiming that “he collapsed in pain and was taken out by medical staff”.
A third image, also linked to the same claim, shows President Xi apparently wincing as he raises his right hand towards his head.
The third plenary session of the “20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China” convened in the capital, Beijing, from 15 to 18 July 2024. The Associated Press (AP) reported that the meeting ended by “endorsing policies aimed at advancing the country’s technological power and fortifying its national security”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check searched Google for any reports by reputable media outlets about President Xi suffering a stroke as of 23 July 2024, but did not find any relevant results. An incident as significant as the claim suggests would have definitely been reported by news platforms and reporting agencies around the world.
We also found that the accompanying images are from over three months ago, when he attended the second session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which commenced on 5 March 2024 and concluded on 11 March and set a “growth target of around 5% for this year”.
The exact matching picture is available on AP Photos here under “China Congress” and here under “Pictures of the Week Asia Photo Gallery”; it is accompanied by the following caption:
“Chinese President Xi Jinping, rear, reacts after drinking from a cup at the closing session of the National People’s Congress held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Monday, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo)”
Other photos from the event can be found on AP Photos, Reuters Pictures, and Getty Images using the search term “xi jinping march 11” here, here, and here, respectively.
Four pictures, including the exact match from the image in the claim, are available on AP Photos and show the president to be completely fine and without any apparent troubles. The images — created at 8:22 PM, 8:27 PM, 8:29 PM, and 8:31 PM on 11 March 2024 — show him pressing “a button to vote on work reports”, reacting “after drinking from a cup”, as “seen on a big screen”, and standing “to sing the national anthem”.
As for the second picture, we ran a reverse image search and found that it appeared on three websites — here, here, and here — on 14 March 2024. All credited AFP as the source, with the third specifically mentioning “GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images”.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, searched Getty Images and found the exact image, which is captioned as follows:
“Attendants prepare Chinese President Xi Jinping’s desk before the closing session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11, 2024. (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP) (Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)”
Our search for the third image led to this 30 August 2023 article from The Telegraph, which includes the caption, “Xi Jinping is desperate to conceal his domestic woes from the Western world CREDIT: Gonzalo Fuentes /Reuters”.
We found the original image on Reuters Pictures here, alongside the caption, “Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China, April 6, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes”. A slightly zoomed out version is available here.
Interestingly, Newsweek reported that the claim went “viral on Russian social media”.
Lastly, Dr Adrian Wong — who, according to his X bio has been “fact checking BS since 1998 at Tech ARP” and is the outlet’s founder and editor-in-chief — wrote in an investigative article that the claim likely originated from Chinese reporter Jennifer Zeng, whose “strongest evidence was a YouTube video by Chinese writer Su Xiaohe”.
MIT Technology Review noted that Zeng “has a track record of spreading rumors and misattributed videos” and is “a key player in a media network that plays an increasingly important role in conspiracies about China and also about elections in the US”.
“It would have been impossible for the [Communist Party of China’s (CCP)] Third Plenary Session to continue if he [President Xi] is incapacitated”, Dr Adrian Wong wrote, adding that “word of mouth, and surreptitious photos or videos, would be impossible to stop, even if Chinese censors erase all mention on social media”.
“If Xi Jinping has been incapacitated by a stroke, it would have spurred a flurry of activity outside of China,” Dr Wong added.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating here, here, here, here, and here on X.
It was also shared here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: There are no credible reports of President Xi having a stroke during the CCP’s third plenary session. Two of the accompanying photos in the claim are from March 2024, with one showing President Xi’s reaction after drinking from a cup and the second depicting attendants preparing the Chinese leader’s desk before the event. The third is from a signing ceremony in April 2023.
Background image in cover photo: Mark Kuiper
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