TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Chinese billionaire director and actress Zhao Wei (趙薇) has been wiped off the country’s internet by the government, for reasons that still remain a mystery.

Zhao’s name has been removed from all TV series, movies, short videos and promotional materials on platforms such as Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku, according to a South China Morning Post article published on Friday, August 27.

The sudden censorship of Zhao, one of the most prominent women in Chinese cinema, has sparked speculation among Internet users in the country. Around 7 pm Friday, the Weibo subject “What’s going on with Zhao Wei?” (# 赵薇 怎么 了 #) has been viewed over a billion times, according to a What’s On Weibo report.

One theory circulating is that Zhao is somehow linked to the scandal involving Zhou Jiangyong (周江勇), the leader of the ousted Communist Party from Hangzhou, which is currently under investigation by China’s top anti-corruption agency. . Zhao and Zhou share a social circle that includes Jack Ma, an ally of Zhou and a friend of Zhao and her husband, who are major shareholders of Alibaba Pictures, according to What’s On Weibo.

Another potential reason is that Zhao owned an agency that represented Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan (张哲瀚) who was recently canceled from the Chinese entertainment industry after an old selfie he took at Yasukuni Shrine in Japan in 2018 appeared online.

The Yasukuni Shrine honors Japanese soldiers who died fighting for the country, as well as a number of war criminals, and is a particularly sensitive political point of contact in China.

Zhao herself was caught up in the WWII controversy in 2001, when she posed for a photoshoot wearing a dress with a wartime Japanese Navy flag, according to What’s On Weibo.

The developments involving Zhao come at a time when various Chinese celebrities are under scrutiny, including Chinese-Canadian singer Kris Wu for her controversies over sexual abuse, actress Zheng Shuang (郑 爽) for her surrogacy scandal and a Wider crackdown on online fan circles (饭 圈), which has seen thousands of posts and accounts deleted this month alone.