False allegations of a deadly attack on Chinese forces in the United States have spread online

Copyright Agence France-Presse 2017-2020. All rights reserved.

Social media articles and posts say 50,000 Beijing soldiers were killed in a raid on a hideout in Maine – part of a series of unfounded allegations about Chinese military action in North America. But local authorities said there was no evidence of foreign forces or a deadly explosion in the northeastern state.

“Hal Turner: 50,000 Chinese soldiers have been bombed and killed in Maine which is listed as an earthquake,” read the headline of an article posted on December 9, 2020 on Facebook.

Screenshot of an article from Before It News, taken December 16, 2020

Turner is an American radio talk show host and blogger convicted in 2010 of threatening to assault three judges in a federal appeals court in Chicago, a crime that prevented him from programming radio for three years.

The same claim can also be found in this article and on Facebook here and here.

Some sites claim that an F-16 was shot down by Chinese forces on the Michigan upper peninsula and that People’s Liberation Army battalions were trained in Canadian British Columbia.

Some of these claims can be traced back to the Hagman Report, an independent podcast that says on its website that it “will never be burdened by political correctness”.

Screen capture of a Facebook post taken December 16, 2020

All claims are false.

Just an earthquake

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a magnitude 3.0 earthquake was recorded on December 9, 2020 near the city of Robinston in Maine, three miles (five kilometers) from Canada. But there is no evidence that it was the result of a bomb.

“There have been no reports of 50,000 Chinese soldiers. There have been no reports of aircraft dropping bombs,” Joshua Rolfe, a spokesman for the Washington County Regional Communications Center, which includes Robinston, told AFP in an email.

Washington Maine has a population of just over 30,000. “It would be virtually impossible for 50,000 soldiers to be present in Robinston Maine without anyone watching,” he added.

A supervisor at the sheriff’s office in Washington County said by phone that this allegation was baseless.

Teresa Porter, a city clerk in the nearby city of Calais, said by phone that nothing unusual happened on December 9.

“We are very small. Obviously, we will know if there are 50,000 Chinese in the area,” Porter said.

Other leaflets released a satellite image of the wooded area where the earthquake struck, apparently claiming it has been cleared.

A Google Maps search shows that the area in question is not a cleared forest but a swampy wetland surrounding the creek leading to the Eastern Lake, which the Maine Inland Fisheries Department defines as a pond.

F-16 crashes

On December 8, 2020, a Wisconsin Air National Guard F-16 crashed during a routine training over the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan, across Lake Superior from Canada.

Captain Dorwood “Hook” Jones, 37, of the 115th Fighter Wing has been identified as the pilot who lost his life in the accident.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known and the 115th fighter wing refused to comment on the ongoing investigation, which was expected to take up to a year.

Commander Bart Van Roux said on December 11 that transporting investigators to the distant crash site could take a week. No US military or media reports mentioned any suspicion of Chinese involvement.

Chinese forces in Canada

There is also no evidence that Chinese forces are massing on the Canadian border.

In October 2020, Turner published another article alleging that China is massing “tens of thousands” of troops in Canada. She said, “Canada and China signed a treaty allowing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to deploy Chinese forces in Canada, starting from 2020.”

“There is not much to say except that it is not true,” said Daniel Le Beauville, a spokesman for the Canadian Department of National Defense, by email.

The article included a video on YouTube showing dozens of uniformed Asians walking along a road on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, on Canada’s west coast.

Screenshot of a YouTube video taken December 16, 2020

The video is not from 2020 nor does it show the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) battalion training less than 100 miles from the US border.

Banana, who lives in Salt Spring, confirmed on Facebook that he filmed the scene on March 17, 2018 and posted it on YouTube more than two years ago.

Clemente said the women in the video were standing at the Mineral Springs resort in the northern part of the island. The resort manager was not available to comment.

Local media reported Gulf Island Driftwoods that the women were taking part in a personal growth retreat.

Recently, the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been questioned about the Canadian Army training Chinese forces.

The issue was amplified after popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson discussed the matter with Ezra Levant, editor in chief of Rebel News.

Amid the continuing disputes between Canada and China after the arrest in 2018 of Huawei CEO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on behalf of the United States, and the subsequent arrests of Canadians Michael Covrig and Michael Spafor by Beijing, the Canadian Armed Forces have revised their dealings with China.

“We are not training with the People’s Liberation Army,” Le Buthillier said by e-mail.

“Based on an agreement signed in 2013, there was from time to time and mutual granting of observer status for non-sensitive activities, including winter survival exercises. A Canadian military delegation visited China in January 2018, while a delegation from The People’s Liberation Army Canada in February of the same year, ”said Le Buthillier.

#FactFriday – #Army deployed a team of four observers from the Canadian Army Advance Warfare Center to China. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army accepted a mutual invitation from the CA to observe the winter survival exercises in Betawa. pic.twitter.com/eARdeIXggz #StrongSecureEngaged #StrongProudReady

– Canadian Army (CanadianArmy) February 9, 2018

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