On December 5, 2025, Chinese automotive critic Chen Zhen found himself embroiled in a public opinion storm that led to him being silenced across all online platforms late on December 4. On December 5, state media outlets flooded reports accusing him of tax evasion and being fined a million yuan. Hong Kong media outlets suggested that his remarks about Xiaomi’s HK$10 million donation to aid in a Hong Kong fire, which led to his ban, might be connected to the incident.
According to a report by China’s CCTV News on December 5, the Beijing Municipal Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation recently investigated Chen Zhen, a prominent online automotive critic, for tax evasion.
The report stated that from 2021 to 2023, Chen Zhen had evaded personal income tax totaling 1.1867 million yuan through concealing income, changing the nature of income, and making false declarations. In November 2025, Chen Zhen was ordered to repay the evaded taxes, pay late fee penalties, and was fined a total of 2.4748 million yuan. Currently, the evaded taxes, late fees, and fines have all been recovered.
Of note, on December 4, several of Chen Zhen’s social media accounts were sequentially silenced.
On December 5, Chen Zhen released a video through another account named “Classmate of Chen Zhen,” saying, “Seeing this has indeed caught me by surprise, but there’s nothing much to say. I brought this upon myself and will reflect on my actions. I should strive to provide more optimistic and positive energy instead of using intense rhetoric. Every setback is a lesson learned, and I will be more mindful in the future.” Shortly after the video was posted, the “Classmate” account was also silenced.
Various platforms provided differing reasons for the bans, with Weibo stating, “The user is currently in a state of silence due to violations of relevant laws and regulations,” while Douyin mentioned, “The user is in a silenced state due to violations of laws, regulations, and policies.” Kuaishou stated it was “silenced for not complying with community norms,” and Xiaohongshu displayed that Chen Zhen’s account was banned for breaching community rules. Chen Zhen’s Bilibili account indicated that the account was currently suspended.
Data showed that the combined follower count of the banned accounts exceeded 24 million, with Weibo boasting 10.14 million followers and Douyin having 10.743 million followers.
Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily reported that previously, Chen Zhen had stirred controversies for his comments on a Rolls-Royce accident and Xiaomi’s HK$10 million donation to aid a Hong Kong fire, which led to speculation and may have contributed to his silencing.
According to mainland media reports, prior to the ban, Chen Zhen had made several comments related to Xiaomi.
On November 27, when Xiaomi donated HK$10 million to aid a Hong Kong fire, Chen Zhen wrote, “Regardless of the reasons behind it, this act itself is praiseworthy,” which was interpreted as subtly questioning Xiaomi’s motivations and raising issues about disputes such as withholders suing Xiaomi to refund car deposits, among others.
Furthermore, a rural blogger gained fame for imitating Lei Jun’s speaking style to sell Tianshan sweet potatoes. Allegedly, Xiaomi’s legal department complained to the platform, citing “suspicion of infringing on speaking styles,” and requested the video be taken down. After a review, the platform rejected the complaint, asserting that the video did not infringe on any rights. This incident was dubbed by netizens as “Sister Selling Sweet Potatoes defeats Xiaomi’s Legal Department,” creating an online buzz.
On December 4, Chen Zhen reposted the “Sister Selling Sweet Potatoes Defeats Xiaomi’s Legal Department” video with a mocking caption, implying Xiaomi, which led to his nationwide ban.
On December 5, various topics related to Chen Zhen surged on Weibo’s hot search list.
Netizens commented, “Normally Chen Zhen shouldn’t evade taxes, it’s not even a large amount, there must be other underlying issues. Even though I am not his fan.”
“I feel like the accusation of tax evasion and the amount involved shouldn’t be intentional, it is a small sum for him. It shouldn’t be due to intellectual deficiency that he ended up in this situation. I guess there might be other reasons which can’t be openly discussed. After all, in our society, there is hardly a high-profile crime, most accusations are related to tax evasion because almost all legitimate tax avoidance methods are considered as tax evasion tricks. As for the true reason behind this incident, I am not sure, what do you think?”
“He got into trouble so swiftly. Huawei HarmonyOS Smart Travel started to delete contents related to Chen Zhen, it seems they are starting to distance themselves.”
“Chen Zhen being silenced across all platforms, can you handle this? It seems it’s related to what happened a few days ago… Regardless of the reasons, criticizing others’ donations is not right. Today, as soon as his secondary Weibo account surfaced, it was immediately banned, this time it doesn’t seem so simple.”
“Being completely silenced, well, it might be for the best. Let things settle down, maybe it’s time to start early retirement since he has made enough money. Unfortunately, it affects the employees related to the Radish Report, leading to their activities being halted.”
Guangdong Network Broadcasting Financial Economy announced on their official Weibo account that according to third-party platforms, Chen Zhen’s Douyin account with 10.745 million followers had an advertisement fee of 350,000 yuan for 1-20 seconds, 600,000 yuan for 21-60 seconds, and 800,000 yuan for ads exceeding 60 seconds.
In November, Chen Zhen released several videos, with at least 7 containing advertisements, including brands like Deep Blue S09, BMW M3, Xiaopeng X9, Enjoyer S9T, and others. Most of the advertisements exceeded 60 seconds, and if calculated at the highest price of 800,000 yuan per ad, the income would exceed 5 million yuan, while even at the lowest rate of 350,000 yuan per ad, the income would exceed 2 million yuan.
In QuestMobile’s 2024 report on Douyin and Xiaohongshu data for the first 7 months of 2024, Chen Zhen ranked 7th in earnings with 10.4 million yuan.