Xinhua News is one of the most respected state sponsored media in China. However, its reports on the August Zhang Zhehan event and the recent reports on CAPA’s respons to Li Xuezheng’s questions have been more than disappointing. Other than the well known fact that the Xinhua reporter Bai Ying is one of the CAPA board members, CAPA also have many financial ties with Xinhua News. CCTV personnel is also involved in the network.
He works for Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the chief editor for Ideology Torch. He played an important role in propagating rumors in August Zhang Zhehan Sakura picture event. In 2015, there were evidence that he plagiarized his PhD thesis. In 2016, he started a movement to boycott American products in China starting with boycotting KFC, yet he uses an iPhone to post Weibo. In August of 2021, he started with defaming Dr. Zhang Wenhong, leading epidemiologist in the fight against Covid in China, causing the doctor to close out all his social media accounts. A week later in August, he lead the propagating of rumors in the 813 Zhang Zhehan Sakura picture event, which destroyed Zhang Zhehan’s career. In September 2021, he started boycott event for Japanese themed festival in Dalian, causing the festival to be shut down. Yet , his wife is real Pro-Japan. His daughter publicly insults Chinese ethnic minorities.
Central Committee of the Communist Youth League (CCYL) is a government organization within the Chinese Communist Party. Their news release can be considered as the CCP government media. During the August Zhang Zhehan event, they played an important role in leading the defamation of Zhang Zhehan and calling to boycott and cancel the actor. The most disappointing thing is on September 3rd, 2021, they published an article called : The ghosts in gun turret have called for truce, but not the ones in some people’s hearts (link below). The article spread many rumors regarding Zhang Zhehan, using pictures from Douban gossip column as evidence. It lied about the relationship between Zhang Zhehan and Dewi as well as the route Zhang Zhehan took during his cherry blossom trip. Even though the weibo post has been deleted from the account, the article is still posted on both Weibo and Wexin. But if one analyze closely, one will find that CCYL has many financial ties within the Chinese entertainment industry. CCYL Net Film and Television Center is a company under the organization’s name. The company holds 50% shares of Kunlun Arts Center. Wang Qian is one of the executives at Kunlun Arts Center. Wang Qian is also the wife of Zhang Shaogang, who is one of the owners of Haixi Communications. Haixi Communications is a large company in the entertainment industry who’s main business is the management of artists including Simon Gong (Gong Jun). Simon Gong had used his mother (Deng Qinbao) and his company’s name to purchase shares of Haixi Communications. Currently he is the holder of third largest percentage of shares of Haixi. This complex network links CCYL to Haixi Communications. Then it is easy to see why CCYL was so keen on defaming and boycotting Zhang Zhehan, who is a competitor to Simon Gong and many other artists managed by Haixi Communications.
Fortnightly Chat is a newspaper released under Xinhua News Agency, a government media certified by Central Propaganda Department. During the August Zhang Zhehan Sakura event, they led in criticism and denunciation. When author Jin An asked is it forbidden to visit Yasukuni Shrine? Their answer is: Cannot visit, forever. That directly resulted Jin An’s Weibo account to be deleted. There have been multiple incidence in the past year that Fornightly Chat used its news release to vote and advertise for another popular male star Xiao Zhan, when it’s forbidden by Central Propaganda Department. On October 17th, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported that Hu Yuxia, former associate editor in chief for Fortnightly Chat is involved in under table dealings and is under inspection.
China Media Group is mainly involved in publishing industry. It’s own news media agency is considered a government sponsored propaganda. On August 18th, 2021, they posted on Weibo criticizing Zhang Zhehan’s ‘reader persona’ and mentions 2 books on Zhang Zhehan’s booklist, Kafka by the Shore and Killing the Commandatore both talked about Yasukuni Shrine. It was soon discovered that neither book mentions Yasukuni Shrine even once (details can be found in 813 truth website). It is obvious the editors of this news media do not read books their own agency publishes. In order to avoid being the laughing stock on the nation, they quickly deleted this Weibo post.
10月底, 中国国家新闻出版广电报意识到自己出丑,所以撤出了所有平台上对张哲瀚的不实报道。知网收录也撤了下来。 By the end of October, China Media Group removed all articles about Zhang Zhehan based on false information to avoid continuing being a laughing stock. They also removed the record from China National Knowledge Infrastructure.
KOL standards for Key Opinion Leaders. They were originally used to propagate a certain thought process or opinion. However, in the Chinese entertainment industry, it seems like their main function is to start and spread rumors about artists. They are usually commercial accounts ran by certain companies. For some of them, their main purpose is to dig up dirt on certain artists. In the Chinese entertainment industry, they have became the new age mafia. For them to not spread rumors, the artists’ team must pay them off. During August 13-15th, hundreds of KOLs were involved in starting and spreading various rumors about Zhang Zhehan. It is quite obvious that Zhang Zhehan did not pay them enough money. What’s more frustrating is they change their name frequently, it is almost impossible to keep track of who spread what rumor.
Since August, Tencent has never stopped creating rumors about Zhang Zhehan. Their most ridiculous rumor is that Dewi’s husband President Sukarno is involved in the Chinese mass killing events in Indonesia. When in fact, President Sukarno is a long time friend of the Chinese Communist Party. The effects of this rumor extends beyond the entertainment industry and could result in a diplomatic disaster under the wrong circumstances. Even today, multiple public accounts on Weixin continue to publish articles for the purpose of defaming Zhang Zhehan.