As deadly floods hit swaths of China, an old photograph resurfaced in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed a heroic police officer who collapsed after rescuing more than 50 people. The man in the photo is actually a police officer who reportedly passed out from fatigue and heatstroke during a search for a missing hiker in 2020.
“After rescuing 51 people in a row, Yang Xuheng was swept away by huge waves and was missing for more than 10 hours,” a simplified Chinese document said. Weibo Post who shared the photo on July 11.
Yang rescued six more people trapped in the floodwaters and survived thanks to his “excellent physical fitness” and “strong survival instinct,” the post said.
“He is a people’s police officer, the people’s hero,” he added.
The photo, shared by an account with more than four million followers, shows a man in a police uniform lying on the ground.
The image was circulated on the Chinese video platform Douyin as well as in YouTube after flash floods in north and southwest China dead at least 20 people and left dozens missing, says state media reported.
China is facing a summer of extreme weather conditions, with heavy rains in the east and south, while much of the north is suffocated by successive heat waves.
Many social media users appeared to believe the photo showed a police officer involved in flood rescue efforts.
“Bravo! You are the one who touched everyone’s hearts in China this year,” one comment read.
“The best news I heard this year,” said another.
Hiker rescue
However, the photo was taken during a rescue operation for a lost hiker four years earlier.
A reverse image search found the image in a report on August 6, 2020 on Chinese state television channel Hunan TV Economic (archived link).
The photo’s caption identified the man depicted as Huang Huimin and said he passed out from fatigue and heatstroke during a search for a missing 73-year-old hiker.
Several police officers suffered exhaustion and injuries during the four-day rescue operation in the mountains of Hunan province, the report said.
Below is a screenshot of the photo shared in fake posts (left) and the Hunan TV report (right):
Meanwhile, the heroic police officer described in social media posts is a different man who allegedly rescued 51 people from floods in China’s Henan province in 2021.
Yang Xuheng went missing for 10 hours after being swept away by heavy rain on July 20, 2021, Chinese state media The Paper reported (archived link).
The newspaper published a photo of Yang (left) at the site of the rescue operation.
Catastrophic flooding in Henan province that summer killed 398 people and caused economic losses of more than $10 billion.
