FACT-CHECK: US Navy did not sink a Chinese ship in combat

CLAIM: The United States Navy had engaged in combat against Chinese military ships and sunk one enemy vessel.

RATING: FALSE

A video on TikTok misleadingly claimed that the United States Navy had sunk a Chinese ship in battle.

User @jc181997 did not mention the location of the supposed sinking. His caption, which stated, “1 down chinese ship[,] matapos paputokan [sic] ng U.S. navy ship 🇺🇸🇵🇭,” implied that the event was related to the tension in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

(“One down Chinese ship after being fired at by US Navy ship.”)

PressOne.PH’s Investigations revealed that the weapon shown firing rounds in the beginning of the video was the BAE Systems’ 57mm Mk 110 naval gun installed primarily on USN’s frigates. 

Although the original source of the video cannot be found, a file photo from BAE showed a similar weapon system being fired in a Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (Carat) exercise, pointing to the possible origin of the said video.

Carat is an annual bilateral military exercise conducted by the US Pacific Fleet together with its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) partners.

A combined US-Filipino force indeed sank an old “made in China” ship back in May 2023 with the assistance of the Australian Air Force off the coast of Laoag, Ilocos Norte.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines confirmed this on its official website.

As of writing, the video has amassed 643,000 views, 12,700 likes and 350 comments. Hurt Allauigan

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