China: We are not selling canned human meat to Zambia In case you didn’t get the memo, China is not selling human meat to Zambians. The ambassador to the country […]

In case you didn’t get the memo, China is not selling human meat to Zambians.

The ambassador to the country was forced to deny claims that companies in China were marinating dead human bodies and then packaging them as corned beef to be sent to Zambia, after rumours on social media hit tabloid headlines.

Yang Youming, the Chinese Ambassador to Zambia, was not impressed.

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“We hereby express our utmost anger and the strongest condemnation over such an act” Yang Youming, Chinese Ambassador to Zambia

“Today a local tabloid newspaper is openly spreading a [rumour], claiming that the Chinese use human meat to make corned beef and sell it to Africa,” he said, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meat rumours are ‘malicious slandering’

“This is completely a malicious slandering and vilification which is absolutely unacceptable to us.

“We hereby express our utmost anger and the strongest condemnation over such an act,” he said.

The rumour was also debunked by Snopes.com. The website said that images circulating on social media were old, adding that one of them was from a marketing stunt for action video game Resident Evil 6.

https://twitter.com/DailyPostZa/status/728862019449851904

https://twitter.com/liyouran_China/status/733113803064270848

Investigation into rumours

The Chinese ambassador has called for the newspaper and source of the rumour to be investigated.

“The government of Zambia regrets the incident in view of the warm relations that exist between Zambia and China,” said Christopher Mulenga, Zambia’s deputy defence minister.

“We shall make sure that relevant government authorities will take up the investigation and give a comprehensive statement.”