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Graphic footage of an attacker setting upon a man in a prolonged assault is circulating in posts that claim it shows a Chinese man beating an Indonesian national. The posts made a flurry of anti-Chinese insults and blamed “cruel communists” for the attack. However, the claim is false. The video actually shows a Thai man who was attacked in January 2020 by his employer, a loan shark, in a dispute over money.
Warning: graphic footage
“Sadistic footage leaked to the public. A Chinese communist assaulted a native Indonesian. The reason is still under investigation,” reads a Facebook post published on September 20, 2022.
“Are we going to keep ignoring such cruelty from the Chinese communists?”
The footage, which lasts over a minute, shows an attacker repeatedly kicking, hitting and dragging a man around on the floor, as a group of men look on.
The post, which is written in Indonesian and Javanese, is littered with anti-Chinese remarks and makes references to “our people” becoming “their subordinates”.
The video was shared in a string of similar Facebook posts, including here, here and here, and attracted more than 92,000 views in a tweet which claimed the attack happened on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, a hotspot for Chinese-controlled nickel smelters.
China’s influence is a sensitive topic in Indonesia, where politicians have warned that pro-China policies are saddling…
