Fact Check: This clip of Anthony Blinken praising Chinese economy has synthetic audio

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials on April 26 to discuss bilateral, regional, and global issues, including China’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war, Taiwan and the South China Sea, and human rights.

Now, a video going viral on social media shows Blinken extolling the Chinese economy and its technological advancements. An X user sharing this video wrote, “Have you listened to Anthony Blinken’s speech from Shanghai?” Its archive can be seen here.

India Today Fact Check found that the audio in this clip was altered. During his address, he spoke about cooperation to help prevent the entry of ingredients of one of the most abused drugs, fentanyl, in the US and dealing with other differences with China.

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It’s easily observable that the audio and video in the viral clip are out of sync, clearly suggesting alterations were made to the video.

We also found the original video on the official X account of Blinken, which was shared on April 24 with the following text, “I’m in China to make progress on issues that matter most to the American people, including curbing fentanyl trafficking. We will discuss the work underway to fulfil commitments made by @POTUS and President Xi last fall, as well as the areas where we have significant disagreements.”

In the video, he spoke about cooperation to help prevent the entry of ingredients of fentanyl into the US and dealing with other differences with China.

The text of his speech is produced below:

“I've just arrived here in Shanghai, in the People's Republic of China, to work on issues that matter to the American people. One of those is fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, the leading killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49.

President Biden and President Xi, when they met in San Francisco at the end of last year, agreed to cooperate to help prevent fentanyl and the ingredients that make it from getting to the United States.

We'll be working on that. Besides my counterparts in the Chinese government, I'll be talking to students, academics, business leaders, and the people who are building bridges and ties between our countries.

And of course, we'll be dealing with areas where we have real differences with China, dealing with them directly, communicating clearly, face-to-face diplomatic matters. It's important to avoid miscommunications and misperceptions, and to advance the interests of the American people.”

Thus, it’s clear that an edited video of US Secretary of State Blinken overlaid with synthetic audio is being shared online amid his Chinese visit.