Viral image does not show Xi Jinping's daughter; news outlets, photo agencies Getty & Alamy misidentify Xi Mingze

By Diti Pujara on 24th June 2025

Between May 30 and June 2, several news outlets published reports on American activists demanding the deportation of Xi Mingze, the daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, from the United States.

This follows a May 28 announcement by United States' secretary of state, Marco Rubio, that the US would "aggressively" start revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with "connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields". "We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong," the statement read. The move aligns with US President Donald Trump's hardline crackdown on immigration. His administration has deported foreign students, revoked their visas, suspended Harvard University from enrolling them and is widening social media vetting for university admissions.

After Rubio's statement, far-Right American political activist Laura Loomer called for the deportation of the Chinese President's daughter. Loomer, often referred to as a Trump supporter and conspiracy theorist, claimed that Mingze, who went to Harvard University, lives in Massachusetts under the guard of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). She had made these claims in April as well

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Alt News found reports by several news organisations, both Indian and international, on this, which used a photograph of a woman in white apparel, identifying her as the daughter of the Chinese President. NDTV, Dainik Jagran, News9, Eenadu, Asianet Hindi, Loksatta, Mathrubhumi and Times Now were some Indian news outlets that published reports using this image. The Times and Newsweek were among international outlets that used the same photo.

Pro-Right American outlet America First Post (AF Post) also wrote on this with the same image. (Archive)

Laura Loomer called for the deportation of Xi Jinping's daughter, Xi Mingze, who attended Harvard and lives in Massachusetts.

Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/KUfP0XbzEM

— AF Post (@AFpost) May 29, 2025

In a video report, Reliance-owned media outlet Firstpost also used the same image to refer to Jinping's daughter. However, the image has now been edited from the segment uploaded on YouTube. The full segment where the image was used can be accessed here.

Fact Check

A quick Google search with Mingze's name showed the same image as highlighted above. But many reports that used the image had sourced it from social media posts or platforms. A Washington Post report from May 2012 said that Mingze enrolled in Harvard in 2010. A New Yorker article from April 2015 said that she graduated from the Ivy League university and moved back to Beijing in 2014. We also found a Daily Mail report on her elusive presence on campus from 2012, but the report used a different image of hers, sourced from Facebook.

Mingze has made few public appearances. Little is known about her and her time in the US and Chinese authorities have kept information about her under wraps. The Washington Post's report hints that Chinese Communist leaders may be maintaining a low profile regarding their children's foreign education to avert criticism regarding their undisclosed wealth. In 2019, a man named Niu Tengyu was arrested and later sentenced to 14 years in prison for disclosing personal information regarding Xi Jinping's family online.

A reverse image search of the photo also led us to similar pictures on Getty, Alamy and Shutterstock. They show her at an event held by Fashion for Development in New York in September 2018. Getty had identified her as Xi Mingze. The Alamy image featured her with an older lady clad in pink. The caption said Peng Liyuan and Xi Mingze had arrived for Fashion 4 Development's Annual First Ladies Luncheon. Meanwhile, the Shutterstock image's description said it showed Noelle Xie and Fi (Catherine) Chen.

On checking further, we found that the woman in pink (seen on Alamy and Shutterstock) is indeed Noelle Xie, a Chinese-born American art curator who works with the United Nations and the US Department of State. This made us certain that the Alamy caption was incorrect. We then wrote to Getty and the photographer to cross-check whether the woman in the image is indeed Xi Mingze or has been misidentified, considering Shutterstock had used a different name.

Alt News wrote to Getty on June 4 and found that a few days later, the photo agency had changed the caption and identified her as Fi Catherine Chen. Since they did not issue a public correction, it was hard to tell when exactly the caption was changed. Below is a screenshot of the new caption with the image.

Thus, the viral image does not depict Xi Mingze, the daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Fi (Catherine) Chen, about whom little is known publicly. It's possible that news outlets relied on images on social media or Getty and Alamy to identify Xi Mingze, where she was misidentified.