China has banned all celebrities from endorsing a range of products and banned those with “lapsed morals” from endorsing anything, as part of an ongoing drive to align society with “core socialist values.”
The regulations, announced by state regulators this week, bar Chinese celebrities from publicly endorsing or advertising health, education and financial commodities, including e-cigarettes and baby formula.
Regulators said the push was to ensure China’s society was “guided by Xi Jinping (習近平) thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era,” referring to the sweeping ideology underpinning the rule of the Xi-led Communist party.
Photo: Liberty Times
“Celebrities should consciously practice socialist core values in their advertising endorsement activities, and endorsement activities should conform to social morals and traditional virtues,” the new regulations said.
It is the latest regulatory move in a crackdown on the entertainment industry, in which celebrities have effectively been blacklisted over scandals and interventions into online fandom.
The rules also banned companies from hiring celebrities found to have “lapsed morals” or engaged in illegal behavior including tax evasion, drunkenness, drug addiction and fraud, and from using images of Communist party leaders, revolutionary leaders and heroes in their advertising.
The authorities said the regulations had been introduced in response to celebrities illegally or falsely endorsing “bad ideas.”
“The media is lax, allowing illegal and immoral stars to participate in advertising endorsements. The chaos in the field of advertising endorsements has seriously infringed upon the rights and interests of consumers, disrupted the market order and polluted the social atmosphere, and the people have expressed strong reactions,” it said, according to state media.
Under Xi’s increasingly authoritarian rule, China’s government has tightened control over the country’s entertainment industry and celebrity fandom in an attempt to reshape China’s pop culture landscape.
In September last year, authorities banned some reality TV talent shows and ordered broadcasters not to promote what it derogatorily referred to as “sissy” men. A two-month regulatory operation also banned the ranking of celebrities and cultural products in an effort to rein in the “chaos” and monetization of online fandom.
In the same month, a Beijing entertainment symposium with the theme “Love the party, love the country, advocate morality and art” was told the industry must act with morality in both public and private.
The president of China’s advertising association, Zhang Guohua, said the regulations would contribute to a “more standardised and healthy improvement” of the industry.
“This does not mean that celebrity endorsements will be limited, but everyone will be more cautious, and the artists will be more responsible and self-disciplined. As long as the law is complied with, celebrity endorsements will still be carried out normally within the scope of compliance and legality, so the impact is positive,” Zhang told domestic media.
He said those who had “enjoyed the benefits of being a public figure” should prepare to be restrained in their actions because of their influence as role models.
“You have such an industry status and influence, so you should be cautious in your words and deeds,” Zhang said.
In recent years, China’s massive entertainment industry has been rocked by celebrity scandals that have crossed the line of extreme political sensitivity inside China.
In 2021, the actor Zheng Shuang was fined nearly 300m RMB (US$46 million) for tax evasion and banned from being invited on to entertainment programmes. Around the same time, Fendi brand ambassador Zhao Wei had her name removed from all works on major entertainment platforms for unknown reasons.
Several companies or celebrities were also punished for their endorsements of bad or fraudulent products. Last year, the standup comedian Li Dan was fined about $134,000 over a women’s underwear ad that was deemed insulting to women, the state media outlet Global Times reported.
The new guidelines also require celebrities to fully understand and have used the product they are endorsing
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend
RSS