Recently, the popular Chinese nationalist blogger known as “Sima Nan” has had several of his social media accounts banned by the authorities, with the ban expected to last for a year. In a video he posted not long ago, Sima Nan made comments on various sensitive topics, including the U.S. election, Trump, Taiwan’s international relations, and illegal organ transplants in China.
According to a report from the South China Morning Post on November 9th, sources revealed that China’s internet regulatory authority has prohibited controversial extreme nationalist blogger Sima Nan from posting on his social media accounts.
Two sources familiar with the situation disclosed that the ban on this internet celebrity known for his anti-Western rhetoric is expected to last for a year. However, these sources declined to comment on the reasons for the ban.
Sima Nan’s Weibo account with 3.22 million followers stopped updating on November 5th after he posted 11 consecutive Weibo messages, some of which included comments on Germany, Israel, Iran, Hamas, and controversial remarks on Taiwan’s international relationships.
In one of the videos posted on November 4th, Sima Nan expressed his opposition to legalizing euthanasia in China, implying that it could involve illegal organ trafficking. This is a highly sensitive topic in China, as the illegal organ harvesting practices of the Chinese government have been exposed by the international community.
Sima Nan, often referred to as a leftist internet celebrity, a “big fifty cent” of the Chinese Communist Party or a “leftist stick”, has been ridiculed by netizens for his vehement anti-American and anti-Western views, with some mocking him for saying “anti-Americanism is his job while living in America”. In August 2022, there was public outrage when it was revealed that Sima Nan, the so-called “anti-American warrior”, had purchased real estate in the United States, contradicting his public stance.
According to a disclosure from a netizen residing in the United States named “么傻在美国”, Sima Nan invested heavily in real estate in the U.S., owned by his son Yu Jiao and wife Liu Songfeng, with a purchase price of $583,700 in 2010, now valued at over a million dollars.
Apart from the mentioned property, an article published on Netease exposed two more properties owned by Sima Nan in the United States, which are subject to certain tax payments to the U.S. government.
After the controversy erupted, Sima Nan publicly admitted on Weibo that he had indeed purchased properties in the United States, though the specifics differed from what had been disclosed. Subsequently, his various social media accounts were temporarily banned.