Amid the escalation of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a claim emerged in Chinese-language social media posts that the United States had not evacuated its citizens from Lebanon as of Oct. 6.

But the claim is false. The U.S. had arranged multiple evacuation flights, including on Oct. 2.

The claim was shared on Weibo on Oct. 6, 2024.

“The United States is not organizing an evacuation in Lebanon, and more than 80,000 American citizens who are under fire need to evacuate themselves,” the claim reads in part. 

Similar claims have been shared to draw a comparison between the U.S. and China, with users touting China’s prompt evacuation of its citizens. 

China’s ministry of foreign affairs announced on Oct. 8 it evacuated 215 of its citizens in two batches from Lebanon. 

Following targeted explosions of many Hezbollah group members’ electronic devices on Sept. 17 and 18, conflict between the militant group and Israel has escalated into open exchanges of fire on several occasions. 

But the claim about the U.S. not moving its people out of Lebanon is false. 

The U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens to leave the country while commercial flights were still available and raised its travel alert for Lebanon to a four – the highest level available – on Sept. 21. 

It later ordered families of embassy personnel and some employees in Beirut to leave Lebanon on Sept. 28.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Oct. 2 and 3 that the U.S. had arranged evacuation flights on Oct. 2.

U.S. evacuation efforts have been also reported by international media outlets, including Reuters, which reported on Oct. 10 that U.S.-organized flights had carried more than 1,000 U.S. citizens from Lebanon to Turkey  over a week. 

Reuters added that two other aircraft had delivered U.S. citizens from Beirut to Frankfurt and Doha, and that “authorities expect” that such evacuations would continue for the thousands of U.S. citizens remaining in Lebanon.

Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Zhuang Jing for Asia Fact Check Lab.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.