BEIJING: A leading entrepreneur in China who had questioned the wisdom of the country's zero-COVID strategy was banned from posting on Weibo, with the social media platform accusing Trip.com co-founder James Liang of violating laws.
It was not clear whether the ban had taken effect or what had triggered it, because Weibo, a platform similar to Twitter, did not specify which laws Liang had broken. On Tuesday May 24 online users noticed changes to Liang's account, which has 817,000 followers.
The account of Liang, who is now executive chairman of China's dominant travel platform, has a statement that the user is currently blocked for violating the relevant laws and regulations. Reuters was unable to contact Liang through Trip.com, which owns Qunar and Skyscanner, and the company declined to comment.
Weibo did not respond immediately to a request for comment from Reuters.
Last week, Liang wrote a piece that was published on the WeChat account of the Center for China and Globalization, in which he argued that overly cautious epidemic prevention policies could cause bigger pain on the economy and people's lives than the virus itself. The post was removed.
The authorities have become increasingly sensitive to public questioning of China's zero-COVID policies, and have adopted even stricter measures to stamp out the spread of the disease, while threatening to take action against critics of their approach.
China needs to stick with a zero-COVID strategy because of the fact that relaxing curbs could cause a high number of deaths and overwhelm its medical system.
In April, Liang posted on Weibo an article he had written about the Omicron variant's low death rate, challenging the need for strict epidemic controls in China.
In April, a separate article he published in the newspaper China Enterprise News warned that excessive COVID-prevention measures could hurt China's economy.
The strategy to combat COVID 19 isn't the only issue that Liang has taken aim at. In his last Weibo post on April 29, Liang published an analysis on why China had taken so long to revise its one-child policy, a topic he has passionately discussed on social media and in media interviews.
Most Chinese business leaders who were once outspoken have gone private on social media, or stopped posting altogether, because of the tighter regulatory environment on Weibo.
Over the weekend, Pony Ma, founder of Tencent Holdings, created a social media stir by reposting an article on the increasingly sensitive topic of China's economy.
Censorship has been tightened under Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is expected to secure a third leadership term at a Congress later this year of the ruling Communist Party.
Other high-profile Chinese banned by Weibo recently include private equity investor Dan Bin and Wang Sicong, the son of Dalian Wanda founder Wang Jianlin.
The bans were not given, but Dan questioned the feasibility of the zero-COVID policy and Wang challenged the efficiency of a government-endorsed traditional Chinese medicine to treat the disease.