Clarifying rumours on Zhao Wei...
This is a post that seeks to clarify current and past rumours/scandals involving Zhao Wei.
On 26 August 2021, Chinese actress and director Zhao Wei had all her works and her name removed from many Chinese internet platforms. No reason was provided as to why.
Many rumours ran rife as to what she had “done wrong”, some ridiculous, many misleading and confusing. This post seeks to clarify these rumours and what really happened.
If you’re looking for evidence and sources, there is plenty on weibo. I'm just going to aim to cover the main points of each.
Let's start with the verifiable incidents:
Japanese flag dress
Incident: There is a photo of Zhao Wei wearing a dress depicting the Japanese war time flag from back in 2001
It was a magazine shoot with a reputable magazine. She didn’t just decide one day to put on a dress with the flag on it. This was planned, the dress was provided, it went through numerous editors and approvals before it was published in a magazine.
The photo shoot was an anti-war charity shoot. Zhao Wei was not paid for it, and funded her own airfares to get there (it was shot in the US).
The senior executive editor of the magazine at the time was a lady named Zou Xue. She later gave an interview saying Zhao Wei questioned the dress but she convinced Zhao Wei it was alright.
Zhao Wei herself said she was young at the time, and not good at saying no to people.
There are also rumours that Zou Xue might’ve taken a bribe to purposely create such an incident to bring down Zhao Wei.
Assaulting a pregnant lady
Incident: Zhao Wei was accused of ordering her driver to assault a pregnant lady after a disagreement at a restaurant
The pregnant lady assaulted was Zou Xue, of the Japanese flag incident. After the dress incident, Zou Xue lost her job, and Zhao Wei felt sorry for her, so they became business partners.
The incident was taken to court. Zhao Wei’s driver said he pushed her when Zou Xue and friends were ganging up on Zhao Wei, but Zhao Wei did not instruct him to assault her.
Driver was fined, court determined Zhao Wei was not involved.
Court also found Zou Xue had falsified medical reports to make her injury seem more significant than it was, not to mention she purposely went to a far away hospital where she had family connections rather than the closest one for medical help.
Using Leon Dai in her film "No other love"
Incident: In 2016, Zhao Wei wrapped up filming of her second directorial feature “No Other Love”. The male lead for the film was a Taiwanese actor named Leon Dai. Leon Dai was then accused by netizens of supporting Taiwanese independence, which is a political no no in China. Zhao Wei was also attacked for casting him. Eventually, they had to announce they were swapping the male lead for the film. “No Other Love” still hasn’t been able to premiere to this day.
Not that I personally believed that people should be blacklisted even if they are advocates for Taiwanese independence, but this is China so…
A film featuring Leon Dai successfully premiered in China in May 2016. By June 2016, when Zhao Wei wrapped up filming of her film, it was suddenly no longer considered ok to use him.
Another film he starred in successfully premiered in China in 2018.
So it seems… only Zhao Wei isn’t allowed to use him?
Removing weibo posts relating to the Leon Dai incident
Incident: Following the attack on Zhao Wei and Leon Dai, netizens reported that some of their posts on weibo were being removed. In particular, even a post from the Communist Youth League on the topic was removed. This led to netizens accusing Zhao Wei of having capital ties to Sina and using her money and power to remove their posts.
Sina later clarified that posts containing sensitive terms are removed automatically by the system, and that was what caused the removal of the Communist Youth League’s post. The post was later reinstated after Sina was asked to investigate.
It had nothing to do with Zhao Wei.
Failed acquisition of Wanjia
Incident: In 2016/2017, it was announced that Zhao Wei and her husband Huang You Long were going to buy a large share in a company called Wanjia (an animation/film company I believe) for $3 billion. This announcement was made by Wanjia before they had officially signed the loans with the banks. Soon after, news came out that they were going to only invest $60 million of their own money and people began accusing them of wrongdoing, causing a lot of negative news. The banks then pulled out, citing too much risk. Because of this, they were unable to complete the bid (no loan means no finances to do it). This meant Wanjia stocks fell, and some investors who had bought Wanjia shares based on the idea that Zhao Wei was going to be investing in it lost money (the ones who sold early made money of course). There was an investigation for months into the acquisition process, and eventually Wanjia, Zhao Wei and her husband were fined for “misleading the stock market”, and barred from holding board positions for 5 years. This misleading part being Wanjia having made the acquisition announcement before the loans were signed off and confirmed. Zhao Wei was accused by the public/media of having made a load of money from this and causing people who bought the stocks to lose a lot of money (there are unfounded accusations that people lost their entire life savings and committed suicide).
Wanjia approached Zhao Wei and Huang You Long to help out first. Zhao Wei and husband had actual intention to purchase a part of Wanjia, it was not meant as a quick money making scheme. Within the contract, there was a clause they were going to hold their stocks for at least a year.
Even though using $60 million to borrow $3 billion seems like a large discrepancy, they had guaranteed assets against the loan meaning they were actually only borrowing around 90% of the funds and had the means to repay the loan if required.
As the acquisition didn’t actually happen, Zhao Wei and husband made no money from this. How could they make money when they hadn’t even acquired anything yet? Accusations that Zhao Wei made money from this were just ridiculous.
The investors who had lost money in this were able to go through the courts for compensation after the misleading the stock market ruling. Most if not all investors have since been compensated, and Wanjia had prepared the funds to compensate them (since Wanjia was the initial party that released the misleading news). Reports of people losing their life savings/taking their lives from this incident is false. Either they made money by selling early, kept their shares or were compensated.
The court process also detailed that Zhao Wei was mostly not involved in the operations of this affair. All she did was sign a couple of documents which made her legally responsible as well. Wanjia was the party that released the acquisition news, and her husband handled the whole affair.
To back this up, when the media were praising Zhao Wei for her successful investing skills back in 2015, she already said she herself didn’t actually know much about buying/selling of various stocks and investments, that her husband was the one who did all that. She repeatedly said this over the years, telling the media to stop giving her false titles like “female Warren Buffet”. That she wasn’t that multi-talented nor had the time for it. But the media continued to be relentless in linking her up with her husband’s investments.
For anyone that wants a detailed Chinese read of this incident -https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404675448050417936&luicode=20000061&lfid=4675448053170501
There is a theory that the Wanjia acquisition was chosen for investigation in the first place because the newly appointed judge at the time wanted a "big" case to solidify his position, and Zhao Wei's celebrity status was going to make it a high profile case. They spent six months investigating, only to find "misleading the stock market" the only thing they could pin on them (and even then, the actual accusation was that Zhao Wei and Huang You Long didn't show enough "intention" at the time to borrow the funds required for the acquisition after the acquisition was announced because they didn't personally approach all of the banks for the required loans - as some of them were approached on Wanjia's side). As in - they were likely picked on and made an example of on purpose for the judge's own ambitions.
Side note: That judge is actually now in jail for other financial crimes.
Zhang Zhe Han incident
Incident: Zhang Zhe Han, an actor under Zhao Wei’s talent agency had some old photos of him visiting the Yasukuni Shrine back in 2018. This Japanese shrine houses war criminals from WW2, and is a giant point of contention in China. As a result, Zhang Zhe Han was declared to have “hurt the nation’s feelings”, and cancelled in China. People then attacked Zhao Wei, due to her connection with him, bringing up the 2001 dress incident, and saying she should be cancelled too. Some of his fans also attacked her for failing to protect their idol.
Zhang Zhe Han visited the Yasukuni Shrine back in 2018 before he came under her talent agency - and posted the photos on his own Instagram account. It has nothing to do with her.
Considering how much she has been abused online over the years for all of the incidents above and below, regardless of how absurd or untrue, you really think she has the right connections to protect him even if she wanted to?
After he was cancelled, it was actually in her best interest to publicly declare her cancellation of his contract quick smart like all his other sponsorships and endorsements did. She chose not to do that because she isn’t someone who enjoys kicking people when they are down.
It has come to light that in the days following Zhang Zhe Han’s cancellation, there was a big coordinated attack from Zhang Zhe Han’s haters and other opposition parties to report to the authorities and demand Zhao Wei and her talent agency also be held responsible for not cutting ties with Zhang Zhe Han straight away.
This is very likely the actual reason for what happened to Zhao Wei, though it hasn’t been officially confirmed by the authorities because this kind of punish the boss for the behaviour of their workers (and something the worker did while not even employed at the company) is absolutely ridiculous.
Now for some unverified accusations:
Accusation: Zhao Wei has deep connections with Alibaba and Jack Ma, which is why she’s being cancelled now, since they are cracking down on Alibaba and that whole capital gang in Hang Zhou. She was also a large investor in ANT group through her mother. Also, Zhao Wei and Jack Ma are in a masonic cult, based on that photo of them taken together with a masonic cult hand symbol
Yes, Zhao Wei does indeed know Jack Ma through her husband
They are not in some masonic cult, the photo of them both making a hand signal was to promote 11 November shopping night. Everyone was making the same hand signal for the event. The Freemasons doesn’t even accept women members.
Despite rumours, Zhao Wei does not have shares in ANT group through her mother. Her mother had shares in a different company from 2015 that then invested in ANT group, but the shares were already completely withdrawn by March of this year.
A couple of years ago, a scheme from a rival business was revealed where many influential weibo accounts were purchased in order to use them to smear Alibaba. Jack Ma claimed that the scheme involved connecting him to Zhao Wei as much as possible, and to use photos of them together whenever possible, as well as linking Jack Ma to the failed takeover of Wanjia incident. This was to create an illusion that Jack Ma was very close to Zhao Wei. They might not be as close as the media would like you to believe.
After Zhao Wei’s name and works were removed from China, a chart from 2020 was circulated showing how the c-ent circle was connected to Alibaba in various ways through all different companies and shareholdings, as a way to show how the c-ent artists were closely tied with capital. It's big and messy, and you will see a lot of familiar big and small names from c-ent. However, you will not actually find any trace of Zhao Wei on that chart.
The people who were arrested as part of the Hangzhou crackdown have been investigated. There have been no ties to Zhao Wei from that.
Accusation: Zhao Wei's husband Huang You Long was the driver of the former Shenzhen mayor, Xu Zongheng. When he was caught on corruption charges, they never found his millions of corruption money. Huang You Long must've taken this money and that's where his fortune comes from. Others also say that Zhao Wei was the mistress of Xu Zongheng, and switched to Huang You Long after he was arrested
Huang You Long was not the driver of Xu Zongheng. This was already officially investigated and confirmed back in 2017.
The mistress claims arose out of some rumours that a number of famous actresses were involved with the mayor. These actresses included Betty Huang Yi who played Xiao Yan Zi in Princess Pearl 3, after Zhao Wei made the role famous in Princess Pearl 1 and 2. People saw the headlines saying “Xiao Yan Zi” was involved with the mayor and immediately thought of Zhao Wei, as she is the most well known Xiao Yan Zi.
The only “evidence” they have of her involvement with the mayor is one group photo Zhao Wei took standing beside him. It’s a ridiculous accusation.
Accusation: In 2008, a lady named Wan Hui came online claiming she was Zhao Wei’s business rival, and that Zhao Wei was after her. In her accusations, she said she fled to Australia while her husband fled to Japan. In Japan, her husband died of unknown causes. Zhao Wei must've gotten her people to get rid of him. How very evil of her.
Wan Hui is obviously someone suffering from mental illness.
Wan Hui claims Zhao Wei had spies everywhere and even when she had ‘escaped’ to Australia, Zhao Wei sent her spies to put Wan Hui into a mental hospital over there. Why do people believe this stuff?
If Zhao Wei was really that powerful/evil as Wan Hui claims, you’d think Wan Hui would still be able to talk crap about Zhao Wei for all these years without repercussions?
Accusation: Zhao Wei is some super mafia boss lady in the c-ent circle doing all kinds of shady stuff like money laundering and drugs. Kris Wu confessed her name along with 47 others in the Beijing entertainment circle after he was detained, which is why she has been cancelled and is now in big trouble.
For a super mafia boss lady, she sure gets attacked a lot without being able to do a lot about it. All those independent journalists and bloggers running rampant with their false rumours, and she can’t even use some of her boss lady powers to shut them up?
Where was the big crackdown of the 46 other people that Kris Wu confessed? It has been months, I heard there was meant to be a giant shake up of the industry with big names arrested left and right?
For someone being accused of money laundering, drugs and all that, China is sure going easy on her. She’s not even detained, allowed to travel from Beijing back to her hometown and allowed to freely go out on trips to get mobile services with her brother it seems.
Since it has now been actual months, and Zhao Wei was last spotted holidaying in Dali, it’s obvious these were absolutely false rumours.
Accusation: Zhao Wei and Jack Ma donated a lot of money to fund Hilary Clinton's campaign during the Trump/Clinton election. See, there are photos of Zhao Wei with Hilary
The photos were from an official event for the Global Alliance of Clean Cookstoves and Zhao Wei was there as an ambassador.
This was widely reported in the news at the time. It wasn't some secret meeting with Hilary.
Accusation: Zhao Wei killed someone, evidence being "she said so in an interview"
You can watch that interview, it’s not a secret interview or anything
She was JOKING omg.
Even the host of the interview came out to say how ridiculous it was that people are using that joke as “evidence” she committed murder.
Accusation: Zhao Wei is in trouble for tax evasion
While Zheng Shuang, an actress who was cancelled at the same time as Zhao Wei was reported to have been cancelled due to tax evasion, they have not accused Zhao Wei of tax evasion.
If Zhao Wei actually had done tax evasion the authorities would be leaping for joy because they would have an actual excuse to cancel her.
Accusation: Something shady must be going on - I heard she pulled out of all her shares and business engagements just before she was cancelled and many of her stocks were frozen too.
Zhao Wei had been gradually pulling out of a lot of business engagements since the Wanjia incident in 2017-2018, likely because of the trouble that incident caused and not wanting to be dragged into similar issues due to her celebrity status. It wasn't something she suddenly did recently.
Her stocks were frozen due to a couple of guarantor contract disputes she is involved in that are due to be heard in court - just to make sure there are funds available if required. Guarantors are parties that sign on to take responsibility should another party they are guaranteeing fail to pay their debts. E.g. your parents can sign on to be your guarantor for a home loan, and will be responsible if you fail to pay your loan. It's probably not your parents fault if they end up being called upon, but since they (wrongly) trusted you, they are responsible anyway. It's not really that shady.
