Does video footage show massive explosions happening in China in 2023? No, that's not true: The video shows giant explosions that happened in Tianjin, China, in 2015, not 2023. This footage has often been falsely attributed to different locations and dates since it was first filmed and posted online.
The claim appeared in a video on Facebook on May 29, 2023. It opened with a fiery explosion with a caption that read:
What is going on in China...😳 ??
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jun 6 21:04:50 2023 UTC)
This is a screengrab from the video showing the orange fireball explosion:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jun 6 21:30:16 2023 UTC)
The explosions in the Chinese port city of Tianjin were reported in international news outlet The Guardian and the BBC here after they occurred on August 12, 2015.
A video posted on YouTube shows the explosions:
This footage has spread on social media since 2015, falsely attributed to other cities and dates. Lead Stories wrote that it was not a livestream of the Ukraine Invasion in 2022.
