Doubts as China claims world’s oldest citizen at 127

A Chinese government news portal has claimed that a woman in China’s remote far west is 127 years old, making her the oldest person ever to have lived — but experts raised questions over the supposed record.

Alimihan Seyiti from Kashgar, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, was born on June 25, 1886, said ts.cn, a government website in Xinjiang — when Grover Cleveland was president of the US and William Gladstone the British prime minister.

Chinese longevity records are not generally recognised internationally, as there was no reliable system for certifying most births until after the Communist Party took power in 1949.