Almihan Seyiti - Oldest Person in the World
Chinese government news outlets claim that Ms. Almihan Seyiti is the most senior citizen in the country, though the authenticity of her birth records remains to be verified.
If the officials' claims are true, Ms. Almihan Seyiti could be the oldest person in recorded history in the world.
Footage released by local official media outlet shows the elderly lady being surrounded by her family and friends at a huge birthday banquet yesterday in Shule county of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, north-western China.
The elderly woman is said to have lived in three centuries and experienced two world wars.
In 1903, Ms. Almihan Seyiti got married at aged 17. She is said to have adopted a boy and a girl with her husband reported China News.
She has been living with her daughter after her husband passed away in 1976 and her son died at the age of 36.
Pictures released by authorities through its social media account show the birthday star wearing a paper tiara at her grand party.
She is also seen playing a traditional instrument and talking to officials in her home village near the city of Kashgar.
In 2013, Ms. Almihan Seyiti toppled China's list of the oldest living citizens at the age of 127.
The super-centenarian enjoys singing and playing musical instruments. She is said to be in good health with perfectly fine eyesight and hearing but could no longer walk.
If the accounts are true, it means she could be 17 years older than Japan's Kane Tanaka, who is the oldest living person in the world according to the Guinness World Records. Ms. Tanaka turned 117 in January.
Western media outlets, however, have been questioning the validity of Ms. Seyiti's age, despite her official Chinese identity card listing her date of birth as June 25, 1886.
'Birth records in the outlying regions of the 19th Century Chinese empire were sparse and unreliable, especially for the ethnic minorities, and China has reported Uighurs living into their 120s before without any solid evidence,' BBC wrote in an article in 2014.
Separate footage released by Shule Integrate Media Centre shows a presenter confirming Ms. Almihan Seyiti to be the oldest living woman in the world. The title is said to have been certified by Shanghai China Records Headquarters.
But the Chinese branch of Guinness World Records said that they had not received an application from Ms.Seyiti to claim for the title of world's oldest person, according to 163.com.
Guinness World Records still has French woman Jeanne Louise Calment as the world.'s oldest person. Ms Calment died in 1997 at the age of 122.
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