China says Türkiye elections 'internal matter' after its media shares false report on President Erdogan's health

By Emre Aytekin

BEIJING (AA) – China on Thursday said it has no intention to interfere in Türkiye's internal affairs ahead of its presidential and parliamentary elections after Chinese state-owned media shared false reports about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's health.

“I’m not aware of the specifics you mentioned. Let me say that Türkiye is a friend of China. China always opposes interference in any country’s internal affairs. Türkiye’s elections are internal affairs and China won’t intervene or interfere in them," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told Anadolu during a press briefing in Beijing.

On Wednesday, the state-owned China Global Television Network's (CGTN) branch in the US presented untrue content about Erdogan's health in two separate posts on its Twitter account, which it later deleted and reported that the previous reports were "unconfirmed."

While CGTN America did not provide a source for its claims in its posts, it did not make any corrections even though the news was denied.

On the same day, Türkiye's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun announced that the country rejected "baseless claims" about Erdogan's health, after the fake news was propagated on social media.

"No amount of disinformation can dispute the fact that the Turkish people stand with their leader and @RTErdogan and his AK (Justice and Development) Party are set to win the May 14 elections," Altun said on Twitter, while also sharing a screenshot of one of the posts shared by CGTN America.

"The claims shared on some social media accounts that 'President Erdogan had a heart attack and was hospitalized' do not reflect the truth," the Center for Combating Disinformation of the Directorate of Communications separately said on Twitter.