Zhao Wei emerges in hometown after Chinese government scrubs once-powerful actress from internet
- One of China’s wealthiest actresses, the censorship of Zhao Wei fuelled rampant speculation about her fate
- She was spotted at a mobile service provider in her hometown in eastern China
Zhao Wei, one of China’s wealthiest actresses who was scrubbed from the mainland’s internet for unknown reasons last month, re-emerged this week in photos from her hometown.
The photos of Zhao showed her casually dressed – wearing a loose purple T-shirt, a pair of green shorts and a knitted hat. An electronic cigarette was hanging from her neck.
On Sunday, a screenshot of an apparent message from Zhao showing her wishing director Queena Li a “happy birthday” appeared on Weibo. When internet sleuths tried to confirm the veracity of the messages, they were nowhere to be found.
Zhao is one of China’s wealthiest actresses, and her sudden disappearance led to rampant speculation about what could have triggered the censorship.
The government did not explain why she was scrubbed from the public consciousness.
The censorship against her came amid a widespread campaign by authorities to clamp down on “misbehaving celebrities”.
Recently, Canadian-Chinese actor Kris Wu was arrested in China and charged with rape after numerous women accused him of date rape.
Actress Zheng Shuang was fined US$46.1 million in late August for dodging taxes.
