China Dinosaur Island

China Dinosaur Island refers to a popular conspiracy theory, that has been spreading online since early 2023. The theory itself is claiming that China has discovered uncharted land, filled with beasts, resembling dinosaurs, over 13 feet tall.

Since February 2023, rumors have been circulating, that an untouched region in China had been discovered to contain dinosaurs larger than 13 feet. The news began on TikTok when user @ravenguru2 released a video that purported to tell of what she heard Chinese news workers talking about in a nail salon.

Several updates were published afterwards, including claims that a helicopter flew over her residence three days after the information was shared. Despite the widespread sharing on the internet, no part of this tale has been verified.

@ravenguru2 #explorer #viral #talkup #findingtheanswer #breakingnews #fyp ♬ original sound – Raven Holiday

The origins of the “China Dinosaur Island” hoax can be traced back to the 6th of February, 2023, when @ravenguru2 uploaded a video on TikTok in which she claimed that previously unknown lands in China contained immense creatures analogous to dinosaurs over 13 ft in height.

According to her, she heard the news, as she was getting a manicure at a salon, with Chinese employees having Chinese news playing. While watching the news, @ravenguru2 used their phone’s translate feature to interpret the story which was roughly about this landmass. After verifying with the staff that this was in fact what was being showed, the TikToker continued, getting information, that there could be anywhere from thousands to millions of the animals, raising concern across the whole of China.

On February 16th, the TikToker posted a follow-up video with the caption “the government is trying to silence me” to explain why she hadn’t posted anything after sharing her narrative. According to her, God had asked her to spread the story, so she continued despite being in a rural area. The night after uploading the video, she says she was woken up by strong vibrations that seemed to come from a helicopter flying above her residence. She then states she has more information to share from the nail salon.

The same day, she came with a followup, telling about an expedition made by the Chinese, that came with several casualties. She also reported the discovery of new species, including giant pandas, as well as unknown marine life and flying creatures.

After @ravenguru2 shared the followup TikTok, the story started spreading, with other TikTokkers also sharing it and reacting to it, while many other users were commenting their own ideas about the “China Dinosaur Island.”

An important contribution to the spread of the story came from Twitter user @Spoo_Kay, who shared the video on February 16th, amassing almost twenty thousand of likes in a few days. The following day, @ravenguru2 continued the thread of the “China Dinosaur Island”, stating the the US has also gotten involved on the island, while also connecting the Chinese spy balloons shot down by the US the same month to the story.

In another video, the TikTokker is talking about a prophetic dream of hers, that she claimed was sent by God to her. In it she finds a distressed mother and three girls, one weak and two strong. @ravenguru identifies the girls as the United States and China, and says the third girl is a weaker country, that will rise in power along with the two superpowers.

Since February 2023, several other TikToks, tweets and other social media posts processed the story, with “China Dinosaur Island” appearing in YouTube videos, Reddit threads, as well as various news articles.

Despite all this, there is no solid evidence to the claims made on the internet.

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