No, Tsai Ing-wen Did Not Make Another Appearance on the Cover of TIME
Fact-checking platform Rumor & Truth exposes a doctored TIME Magazine cover featuring President Tsai Ing-wen laughing at a flood-ravaged police officer.
By Weixun meijiu (微醺梅酒)
This piece originally appeared in Rumor & Truth and is translated and reprinted with permission of the publisher.
There’s a rumour online that goes like this:
"TIME Magazine used this picture of a police officer sitting in the water eating a take-out lunch! Meanwhile our president…[sits in an armoured vehicle smiling]. Isn’t this shameful?”
This news bulletin has been quite popular over the last couple days, and is usually paired with two pictures. The first picture is a dubious looking mock-up of TIME Magazine, the second picture reads:
“The topic of this month’s issue of TIME Magazine is Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen inspecting the flood areas in the South. Aside from the date and time, the cover reads: 1. Ineffectual bumbler 2. Taiwan Queens Show [sic] 3. A country of sadness - Taiwan.”
On the left, the doctored TIME Magazine cover featuring Tsai Ing-wen smiling at a police officer eating a take-away lunch in flood ravaged Southern Taiwan. On the right, a blurb of text explaining the English text on the cover. Please do not re-share this image for the purpose of duping others.
After the disastrous heavy rainfall that hit Southern Taiwan this August, the Tsai administration and the local government faced criticism for its poor handling of relief efforts.
But a recent issue of TIME Magazine lambasting Tsai? Sorry, that’s a rumour. There was no issue of TIME published on August 25th, and the TIME Magazine cover corresponding to the week in question features tennis star Serena Williams. That’s all there is to it.
