TLDR:
- Footage of Chinese tanks was taken in Rizhao, Shandong Province, not Henan Province, where localized protests over a banking scandal are taking place
- No banks in Rizhao were involved in scandal
- Tanks were filmed on July 17, but had only gone viral recently
- Movement of military equipment coincided with local exercises
Full Article:
Tanks deployed on Chinese city Henan's roads, government declared the money in savings accounts of people as "Investment Instruments".
Tanks are deployed to "Protect the bank" pic.twitter.com/bLGuspWBHU
— Elite Predators (@elitepredatorss) July 21, 2022
There has been a bit of a stir online over videos showing Chinese military tanks driving around city streets reportedly amid the backdrop of the Henan bank protests. I know everyones’ first thought was [REDACTED] 2.0, right?
This is huge. Don't know how this will end. Henan bank is NOT the only one that is having problems with liquidity. All four Chinese banks are having the same issue. Some depositors found they can save and can NOT withdraw money with their bank cards. #bankrun #China #CCP pic.twitter.com/5WYYgpmIWP
— Jennifer Zeng ?? (@jenniferatntd) July 10, 2022
Posts such as the one above began to take twitter by storm yesterday, claiming that the tanks were filmed in Henan to counter people protesting over the Henan banking scandal. In short, since April, deposits totaling $1.5 billion at several rural banks in Henan Province have been frozen while withdrawals have also been suspended in an apparent interest repayment scam by the Henan Xincaifu Group, resulting in localized protesting against the banking group. One protest in the Henan capital of Zhengzhou on July 10 resulted in clashes (above).

The footage in question of the tanks was not taken in Henan, but rather in Rizhao City, Shandong province. The building in the background is the Hanting Hotel Rizhao, located at (35.39923, 119.52703), and not a bank as some have claimed. The footage first appeared online on July 18, however, it received little attention until the past 24 hours. France 24 reached out to staff at the Jinjian Hotel, a local hotel close to where the video was taken, who stated that the tanks passed through the city on July 17. This coincides with an announcment by the China Maritime Safety Administration, who stated that military exercises would be going on in the area from July 14- 16.

Make of this what you want, but the information at hand suggests this was a military convoy passing through the city after exercises and is unrelated to the Henan province bank scandal.