A video of two scantily-clad women dancing around a man has been shared in Chinese-language posts with a claim that they were sent by Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen to entertain members of the British Conservative Party during their visit to Taiwan.
The claim is false. The video shows a Taiwanese company party around the beginning of the 2023 Chinese New Year. A review of all official British dignitaries to Taiwan over the past two years also did not reveal any person who matched the man in the video.
The video was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Jan. 3.
“President Tsai sent a Taiwanese girl to the political reception of the British Conservative Party! The girl tried her best to provide service with a dedicated mind, but she has not been able to get a promotion yet. So she got angry and complained on X. She is also ready to go to Beijing to complain about Tasi,” reads the claim.
The one-minute and 14-second clip shows two women dancing around a man at what appears to be a banquet.
The identical video with similar claims has also been shared on Telegram.
But the claim is false.
Courier’s New Year’s party
A reverse image search on Google found the footage first appeared in a post by the X account "CEO Briefing" on Jan. 9, 2023.
“I never thought Chinese girls could be so bold! A shipping company’s end of the year dinner party. There’ll also be a get together after Chinese New Year,” the caption reads.
At around the 40-second point in the video, the traditional Chinese characters for “Tongda” are visible on a wall, a style predominantly used in Taiwan. Additionally, a careful examination of the clip shows that the people are speaking Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent, suggesting that the event occurred in Taiwan.
Keyword searches found a Taiwanese company called Tongda Express.
An image from Google Map shows the company’s brand name printed across the body of one of its vehicles. Both the font and color of the word Tongda on the vehicle appear to match the same characters on the wall in the video.
The Taiwanese media outlet MinTV News also reported on the video, saying that the event took place at a Chinese New Year's party.
Tsai’s meetings with British officials
A review of press releases of President Tsai’s meetings with U.K. officials over the past two years shows that none of them match the man shown in the video of the dancing girls.
They include meetings with Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hands in November 2022, members of the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group in March 2023 and Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords and U.K. Trade Envoy to Taiwan Lord Faulkner of Worcester in September 2023.
Tongda Express has not responded to questions about the video as of press time.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.
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