Video of girl lifted high into the air by giant kite was taken in Taiwan in 2020, not at Shandong Weifang Kite Festival

 

Screenshot of the tweet. 

 

News Brief 

A video shared Oct. 9, 2022, on Twitter, claims to show a child being caught in the tail of a kite and swept up into the sky during the Weifang International Kite Festival in China’s Shandong province. The caption, written in simplified Chinese, translates as, “A child was lifted up into the sky along with a flying kite.” The simplified Chinese-language subtitle of the video translates as, “At the Weifang Kite Festival in Shandong, a pair of parents mistakenly launched their child into the sky.” 

Weifang International Kite Festival is held every year in Weifang city, Shandong province, featuring magnificent kites from all over the world.  

As of the time of publication, the tweet had been retweeted 132 times, 13 times with quote, and had received 353 likes. 

Fact-checking 

A reverse image search found a YouTube video, titled “Thriller! Little girl thrown into the air by the tail of a kite for 30 seconds│CTV News Channel 20200831.” The kite’s design and the surrounding environment in the YouTube video correspond to those in the viral video. Therefore, both videos show the same incident.   

According to the narration and description of the video, it shows a kite festival held at the Nanliao Fishing Port in Hsinchu, Taiwan in 2020. A 24-meter kite was about to be launched at the scene. The kite which was supposed to throw out candies wrapped around a girl and hoisted her off the ground. Fortunately, the little girl was finally caught by the crowd and sent to the hospital for emergency treatment. Her life was not in danger. 

News articles published by Taiwan’s Central News Agency and CTS News claim that the 2020 Hsinchu International Kite Festival was held at the International Kite Arena in Hsinchu Fishing Port from Aug. 29, 2020 to Aug. 30, 2020. During the kite festival, a girl was lifted high into the sky by a kite. Hsinchu city government says, “The city government completed the investigation on the evening of the accident which occurred at the kite festival. The main cause of the accident was the lack of a safe distance between the kite and the crowd. The event was suspended immediately after the accident.” 

Based on the above articles, the viral video shows the incident that happened at the Hsinchu International Kite Festival in Taiwan and has nothing to do with the Weifang International Kite Festival in Shandong. 

Screenshot comparison of the viral video (top), the news report broadcast by CTV News Channel in 2020 (middle and bottom). 

On Aug. 30, 2020, the day of the accident, the Hsinchu International Kite Festival made an announcement, on Facebook, about the suspension of the kite festival. On the same day, Lin Zhijian, the then mayor of Hsinchu city, posted an apology statement on Facebook. 

Screenshots of the announcement made by Hsinchu International Kite Festival (top) and the apology statement issued by Lin Zhijian, the then mayor of Hsinchu city (bottom).