Online Reports of Jiang Zemin’s Death Greatly Exaggerated?

Sankei report: Too early?

Japan’s Sankei News reported this morning (see bulletin below) what the internet has been buzzing about for a couple of days now, saying that former Chinese president Jiang Zemin has died. But did they jump the gun on this one? Days of rampant speculation on microblogs, trickling into mainstream news — but now Xinhua says it’s all pure rumor.

Is it possible that our beloved social media could have led us all astray?

This whole mess began when Jiang did not show up for China’s 90th anniversary celebrations, and many began to wonder if it might be due to health problems. There was even more discussion online late on the night of July 5 when a motorcade of black cars at Beijing hospital were reportedly seen and visible traffic congestion in the area was showing up on Google Maps:
Chatter on Sina Weibo and other microblog platforms got more intense as the rumors spread. Both Sina and Tencent blocked searches for Jiang Zemin’s name, as you can see from our screenshots below, taken yesterday.

Sina Weibo

Tencent Weibo

That brings us to this morning when, according to RFA, the Chinese media had been ordered to remain silent on the matter, although a press conference was said to be taking place this morning. But that particular announcement turned out to be for a construction project. Japan’s Sankei was one of a few media orgs that decided to run a report, and if it turns out to be false they will certainly regret it. But who knows? Maybe they know something the rest of us don’t.

Fans of social media (we count ourselves among them) are very quick to condemn the Chinese government for blocking services like Twitter and Facebook, selected Western news org, or regulating unofficial news sources. But on this particular day, even though many of us instinctively distrust it, the the ‘official word’ from China does hold some value.

Having said all that, we’re still paying close attention to this story for the rest of the day.