While fake news about China is nothing new, in the past year, several false allegations by Western media or organizations made news in China. The claims were not only exposed by traditional media, but also poked fun at on social media platforms by netizens who found such "news" unfounded, befuddling and laughable.

One case of misreporting was on the 39 migrants found dead in a refrigerated trailer in an industrial park in Grays, Essex in the UK on October 23, 2019. The next day, the Internet was inundated with news that read, "The 39 Chinese migrants who were found dead in the back of a lorry had traveled 5,000 miles and could have been locked in the freezing trailer for days." They posed the question: "How did 39 Chinese nationals find themselves inside a lorry in Essex?" It later turned out that these migrants who suffered such a tragic end were Vietnamese rather than Chinese.

Another unfounded claim was recently debunked by Ajit Singh, a Canadian-based writer and lawyer, and Max Blumenthal, an author and editor of The Grayzone, which is an independent news website dedicated to original investigative journalism.

On December 21, 2019, they published a co-authored article on the website, revealing that the claim that China has detained millions of Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China is based largely on two "highly dubious" studies.

The claim served as the foundation for the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the so-called Uygur Human Rights Policy Act on December 3, 2019, calling for sanctions against China.

A closer look at these studies reveals "the U.S. Government backing, absurdly shoddy methodologies, and a rapture-ready evangelical researcher named Adrian Zenz," they wrote.

The first study, conducted by the U.S. Government-backed Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, extrapolated the number of "detained" Uygurs based on an absurdly small sample of research subjects: "a grand total of eight people," according to Singh and Blumenthal.

They also found that the second study was based on a single report by Istiqlal TV, a Uygur exile media organization based in Turkey. The study was authored by Adrian Zenz, a far-right fundamentalist Christian who believes he is "led by God" on a "mission" against China.

"As Washington ratchets up pressure on China, Zenz has been lifted out of obscurity and transformed almost overnight into a go-to pundit on Xinjiang," they wrote. Zenz has testified before the U.S. Congress and provided political commentary for several media outlets.

Singh and Blumenthal's article was covered by the Chinese media. After reading about it, a Chinese netizen named Cai Xie Yue Guang commented that after stirring up troubles in Hong Kong, the U.S. is turning its attention to Xinjiang to slander and damage China.

In addition to the above two cases, a report published by The New York Times (NYT) on November 16, 2019, on the alleged 403 pages of leaked files that "provided an unprecedented inside view of the continuing clampdown in Xinjiang" was also found questionable.

Nothing in these files was worth being "leaked," said Zheng Liang, a researcher with the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University in south China's Guangdong Province. Zheng grew up in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, and has studied Xinjiang affairs for more than 10 years.

He noticed that the reports by some Western media outlets such as the NYT on Xinjiang are self-contradictory, follow a biased stereotype and show their "lack of basic knowledge of China's Xinjiang policies and its counter-terrorism measures."

In addition to a lack of knowledge or insufficient diligence in verifying information, fake news and other unfounded claims result from the socially irresponsible practice of seeking political or commercial gains at the cost of authenticity.

For example, after the Lhasa riots on March 14, 2008, CNN was lampooned by Chinese netizens for its distorted coverage and analysis of the riots that occurred in Tibet Autonomous Region. "Don't be so CNN" has become a phrase in Chinese social media to mean "do not turn white into black."

Such unethical behaviors aimed at tainting China's image will backfire once exposed and will erode public trust in Western media.

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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