Chinese celebrity – The Sinographer

Beijing police confirms that the Canadian-Chinese celebrity Kris Wu (R) has been remanded on rape charges. (Source: Internet/Set photo)

An unsurprising update

As mentioned in this site previously, patience is a virtue on the internet, especially when it comes to topics that are controversial, sparks wide public interest and debate.

A Chinese-Canadian celebrity Kris Wu was accused of engaging in various sexual misconduct and criminal acts in China. Netizens were furious at the news, flooding his social network account with angry messages and calls to boycott him.

On 23rd July, an official statement provided more credible insights into the saga, which come at a surprise for both sides.

Screen cap of official findings published on 23 July 2021. (Source: Weibo)

Official findings suggested the presence of a third party, which neither Kris Wu nor the victim is aware of.

The third party acted as a middle man, pretending to be on the victim’s side when in touch with Kris Wu’s team, and vice versa.

His goal: to con Kris Wu’s team for a large sum of hush fee.

However, the scheme did not materialise, as Kris Wu’s team directly wired the money to the victim’s bank account, without going through this third party.

The police statement concludes by mentioning that “further investigations are ongoing”, suggesting that troubles are just beginning for Kris Wu.

Fast forward to 30th July. Chaoyang district police force published another official statement, this time much shorter than the previous one.

The police confirmed that Kris Wu has been arrested on rape suspicion and he is now under custody.

Police updates on 31st July 2021. (Source: Weibo)

The actual term used is “刑事拘留” (XingShiJuLiu) “under criminal custody”, suggesting that the police have substantial evidence to support the corpora delicti of the case.

Also, Kris Wu is Canadian, thus he has a high chance of absconding given the severity of the case.

Under Chinese law, if convicted of rape, Kris Wu could face a sentence between 3 to 10 years.

Implications

Previously when accusations about the sex scandals just broke, Kris Wu already lost all his endorsements in mainland China, where his main market is. The brands involved include some of the big names such as LV, Tencent, among others.

After the confirmation of his arrest, one of China’s largest SNS, Weibo, took down Kris Wu’s super-thread channel (微博超话）, effectively signalling the end for Kris Wu’s entertainment career.

Apart from Weibo, Kris Wu has been boycotted from the Chinese internet. In place of his name, a serial number 133700 is used. Netizens suspect that this is his identification number in custody.

Further implications

On the other hand, die hard fans of Kris Wu who refuse to accept his remand, called for drastic actions to secure his release.

In private chat groups and chat rooms, suggestions such as storming the remand centre to break him out of custody are zealously suggested and promoted.

This led to top-level criticism from the national state council on the audacity of fans, which suggest a cracking down of such zealot-like mindset surrounding celebrities is in the process.

Die hard fans of Kris Wu plotting to break him out of police custody. (Source: WeChat)

What could happen next?

Legal process will take a long time, but given the public attention on the case, and Kris Wu’s status as a Canadian citizen, there would be official updates on every stage.

Official media such as Xinhua news agency, People’s Daily have voiced out their opinion on the issue. People’s Daily published a strong-worded status on Weibo, stating that nationality shouldn’t be one’s “Get out of jail” card, clearly addressing Kris Wu’s citizenship issue on his legal case.

Nevertheless this not only spells the end of Kris Wu’s entertainment career, but could also be the start of another round of crackdown on “celebrities with low moral standards” by the Chinese authority.

In addition, this incident once again revealed the enormous raw power possessed by the Chinese netizens. Their sentiments could effectively influence policies and determine the life and death of celebrities and businesses. Conversely, netizen’s opinions (within and without China) can be manipulated, influenced, and directed with the right strategy and tool.

Governments around the world are aware of this, and we can see efforts at limiting and even preventing tech giants from gaining too much sway over public opinions through various platforms and channels.

Of course this limits one’s liberty and freedom of expression. However, letting platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Weibo, Tencent run their respective platforms without regulation does not lead to a brave new world too. A balance need to be struck between the two sides, so that individual members of the society can truly express themselves with the greatest freedom.

Who is the Canadian?

Kris Wu is a Canadian Chinese celebrity. He started his career in Korea, before rising to stardom in his birth country, China, in the early 2010s. Since then, he has left the Korean boy band that propelled him to stratosphere, started his own agency, starred in Hollywood blockbuster, and became a defining icon in the Chinese entertainment field from 2010s till now.

Kris Wu, a Canadian Chinese celebrity famous in China, was recently accused of sexually assaulting young girls. (Source: Weibo)

What did he do?

Just like rockstars in the 70s and 80s, an entertainer with Kris Wu’s status in today’s China will never be short of fans who would want to sleep with him. Neither is Kris Wu famous for shying away from such encounters.

However, Kris Wu was recently accused of sexually assaulting a young acting school student Du Zhumei（都美竹）under the pretense of auditioning her for an upcoming tv series role. According to the victim, the incident happened in June 2020, Kris Wu promised they were going to start a relationship after getting her drunk and then sleeping with her the night before, even to the extent of promising to taker her to see his mother during Chinese New Year (In Chinese and East Asian culture, this often represents affirmation to start a serious relationship).

The victim states that she did not fall for Kris Wu’s empty promises and demanded official apology for his actions. Both sides began negotiation, with Kris Wu’s team hoping to settle the matter with a hefty compensation (1M CNY).

The self proclaimed victim. (Source: Internet)

An interesting turn

Things take an interesting turn here: Kris Wu’s team asked the victim to sign a statement to promise not to “harass or dwell on this matter anymore” after receiving the aforementioned payment. However, Wu’s team also proposed to the victim, that they would transfer a fund totaling to 3M CNY to her first, then she should transfer 2M CNY back, keeping the 1M payment, claiming this is “for taxation reasons”. Without hearing back from the victim, Wu’s team transferred an initial sum of 500k CNY to the victim’s bank account on the same day.

The victim accused Wu’s team trying to frame her for extortion. (Source: Weibo)

So what do all these money transfers mean? Sources familiar with the matter suggest an menacing motive hidden behind the instructions. Through the complicated transactions, Wu’s team will try to frame the victim as someone who’s goal is to extort financial gains from Wu by threatening to go public with his past actions. The process can be split into 3 stages.

Stage 1: The victim signs the compensation statement, providing evidence that her actions are financially motivated.

Stage 2: Wu’s team transfers an amount that’s way higher than the agreed sum to her, and then ask her to transfer the extra funds back due to “taxation reasons”. Sources state that this is actually Wu’s team attempting to obtain legally acceptable evidence to show that the victim is the recipient of the funds.

Stage 3: Wu’s team immediately transfers 500k to the victim, to pressurise her into following all the instructions. If she heeds to their pressure, then Wu’s team will have enough evidence to accuse her of criminal extortion, and given the sum involved (1M CNY), the minimal sentence in 10 years.

This course of action not only able to help to reverse public opinion and portray Wu as the unfortunate victim who is extorted by a crazy fan, but also discredit and prevent the original victim from bringing up this matter up again.

How did the society react?

Chinese netizens did not take the news well, as Wu has already had a track record of dumping fans after sleeping with them. Previously he has all emerged unscathed by the scandals. However, the current accusation not only involves him mistreating fans, but also contains accounts of sexual assault and rape.

Immediately after news broke, Wu lost all 15 business collaborations in mainland China, including ones with big names such as LV, Tencent.

This suggests 2 things:

1. The accusation is not entirely false, and brands take the case very seriously.

2. Business brands are terribly cautious when it comes to dealing with Chinese market and Chinese netizens. They would almost always want to play safe rather than risk losing marketshare.

Of course, it is unwise to play judge here, as with many previous incidents on the Chinese internet, the truth can be completely different from general online sentiments.

Nevertheless, the ongoing incident once again unveiled the changing sentiments online towards celebrities. They are held to a much higher moral standard than ordinary citizens in China due to the vast influence they possess. Anything less than a flawless moral track record, once exposed to the public, will be detrimental to the professional lives of celebrities.

What could happen next?

There are three possible scenarios that could develop from here. The first being the accusations against Kris Wu are proven to be true. In this case, he will almost definitely lose all his privilege and be excommunicated from the Chinese entertainment business. What’s worse is that he could be possibly facing public prosecution for various sexual crimes (including rape, and sex with minors). However, being a Canadian citizen, most likely he would be deported from China after a hefty fine, rather than facing a long jail time.

The second scenario would be the aforementioned accusatios to be false. In this case, Kris Wu would be able to continue his entertainment business in China, just like numerous times before. Then again, this incident, coupled with the huge public backlash, would definitely tarnish his reputation and affect his exposure.

The third scenario is the accusations are not completely proven false. This is actually the most likely outcome to this incident, as the accusations do hold some similarities with Kris Wu’s past doings. In this situation, In addition, Kris Wu would be marked by the Chinese netizens as a celebrity with low moral standard. Even if he did not break the law, he would almost certainly be criticized morally.