Exclusive: Communist State Newspaper Tries to Pass Off Swiss Alps as China

Brienz, Switzerland
Afbeelding van Viola via Pixabay
Kurt Zindulka

China Daily, a government-run propaganda newspaper, published a “glamour” video on Sunday of a dog frolicking through a supposed Chinese village at the base of snow-capped mountains. In reality, the video depicted the mountains of Switzerland.

China Daily, which is owned by the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), posted the video on Twitter, where it remains live as of the time of publication.

Accompanying the video, the newspaper asked: “Wouldn’t you like to visit this peaceful getaway and enjoy play time with your dog in a small town nestled at the foot of the mountain?” alongside the #GlamorChina [sic] hashtag.

Chinese Communist Party entities – including the Mission of China to the European Union and the Chinese embassies in the Netherlands, Hungary, and Austria – have used the same #GlamorChina hashtag to promote tourist destinations across China.

While the other videos appear to feature actual Chinese tourist destinations, the dog video shared by China Daily on Sunday was filmed in Brienz, Switzerland, in the Emmental Alps.

Swiss photographer and videographer Sylvia Michel, the winner of the 2018 Swiss National Award for the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards, filmed the original video in March.

Speaking to Breitbart London, Michel confirmed that “this video was made by me in Brienz, Switzerland on my morning walk,” adding that she has since reported the Chinese propaganda outlet to both Facebook and Twitter for apparently stealing her footage, which is prohibited under Twitter and Facebook‘s intellectual property rules.

The Chinese communist propaganda version of the video was slightly edited, including flipping the image horizontally, making colour corrections, and seemingly doctoring a stick into the dog’s mouth.

Following the incident, the photographer updated the title of her video to: “The true meaning of luxury 4K (Brienz in Switzerland … not China)”:

Social media users widely mocked the China Daily account for the post, with one user writing: “That’s literally Switzerland and no I’m not bringing my dog to China, nice try.”

Another joked: “Switzerland would like to thank the Chinese government for their advertisement of the beautiful country and helping to boost tourism there #GlamourSwitzerland.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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