China: Govt Critic Wang Sicong's Social Media Accounts With 40m Followers Banned

Social media accounts of Chinese national, Wang Sicong, who spoke against the country’s suppression of media voices and Shanghai’s strict lockdowns have been banned, local media reported on Friday.

Wang Sicong, the son of Wang Jianlin, founder and chairman of Wanda Group (One of China’s largest real estate development companies) reposted a video on Weibo questioning whether WHO had ever recommended the Traditional Chinese medicine, Lianhua Qingwen, and wrote:

The China Securities Regulatory Commission should strictly investigate Yiling Pharmaceutical. To have a rigorous, courageous, conscientious, and a truth-seeking media in China now is actually really difficult.

Although Sicong deleted this text, his account was temporarily banned from posting anything on April 19 (report dated April 19, 2022).

On April 28, his account has been permanently deleted from Weibo. He had around 40 million followers on Weibo 
 
Before this, on April 5, Sicong also called out a post of CCTV news on US Covid data as “fake news” and asked CCTV to delete it. He also recently posted:

The nucleic acid test each morning isn’t about whether you’re positive or negative; it’s about your servility and guts. Not gonna do the test anymore from today onwards.

His WeChat moments also show that On April 10, he released a remark alluding situation in Shanghai:

In the 21st century, the only possible reason for not being able to eat is because of politics.

There are rumours that Wang Sicong has been arrested but it cannot be confirmed yet.

His WeChat account has also been restricted from logging in. This incident has caused heated discussions on Weibo with netizens wondering “Even the former richest man’s family member has been banned, what can we, ordinary people say?” 

Source: ANI