Bai Ying
白瀛, Bai Ying, chief reporter at Xinhua News Central News Center.
Reporting on Zhang Zhehan
On Dec 1, 2021, Xinhua Net published an article interviewing an unnamed CAPA representative and supporting their sanctions against immoral artists[1]. The two reporters listed on the article are 白瀛 Bai Ying and 王鹏 Wang Peng. It was shortly discovered that Bai Ying is also a member of the CAPA Ethics Committee, drawing into question the conflict of interest and the identity of the CAPA representative who was interviewed.
Bai Ying's profile
LXZ questioning Bai Ying
The same day, netizens discovered Bai Ying's Weibo account, which contains sexually suggestive posts as well as posts critical of China and the CCP. After these screenshots were posted on Weibo, Bai Ying changed his Weibo account name and hid all content in his account.
Throughout the latter half of 2021 and into 2022, Bai Ying has written a number of articles published by Xinhua News criticizing so-called "immoral" artists and supporting CAPA's authority in overseeing the ethics of artists in the entertainment industry. At least one of these articles was included in a middle school textbook.
The Epoch Times published several articles written by Bai Ying in 2005 and 2006. A heavily anti-China publication, they have published over 60 articles about Zhang Zhehan since his cancellation, covering everything from the Lufei Weibo account to the ZSJ IG, each time declaring that he was making a comeback.
Activities in Fandom
In August 2022, it was discovered that the MAC address of one of the devices used by a well-known "righteous passers-by", a Huawei Mate30 Pro, matches the device used to post to Bai Ying's WeChat public account. The account posted multiple times from an IP address associated with Xinhua's headquarters. All four of their accounts, as well as Bai Ying's account, follows 韩松 Han Song, a science fiction writer not involved in Zhang Zhehan's fandom and not followed by any fandom accounts. Han Song is also a reporter at Xinhua and director of the News Room, Bai Ying's colleague.
List of main account and all side accounts
One of the side accounts and device
Baiying WeChat public account
All 老年人 accounts following Han Song
Bai Ying following Han Song
Han Song's profile
Many of the exposés about Bai Ying in December 2021 were posted by accounts whose motivations later became suspect. None of them mentioned that Bai Ying has a background in theatre and is a stage director and critic, and that his stage projects were supported by CAPA. For example, 广陵绝 Sound of the Sword, a play directed by Bai Ying in 2019, was funded by 开心麻花, a CAPA executive director unit[2][3]. Since Bai Ying's activities in theatre are readily available online, it is suspected that these accounts deliberately omitted this aspect of Bai Ying's career.
There are no records of reports by people like Lao Ahyi who previously claimed that they had used their real identity to report Bai Ying.
Dec 2021 to Jan 2022
The main account, 老年人真的不是故意的, first appeared on December 5th, 2021, claiming to be a retired CCDI official, and hinted heavily that it was run by a woman. The account gifted a large number of presents on Li Xuezheng's livestreams, despite Li repeatedly asking viewers not to do so, an act that antis subsequently used to smear Li and accuse him of getting involved in Zhang Zhehan's case for personal profit. The account became popular in the fandom for writing a long and sympathetic essay praising fans and declaring that it was willing to use its real identity to support Li (but never did so).
The account has called out every reporter associated with CAPA except Bai Ying himself.
Admitting he was the one who gave gifts during LXZ livestream
Claims to be a retired official
It should be noted that this account appeared three days after Li Xuezheng revealed that he received a thick dossier of evidence from a retired official who was not afraid of using his real identity. This post may have been the inspiration for this account's persona.
After Jan 2022
After Li Xuezheng was muted and the Zhang Sanjian persona appeared, the 老年人 account became increasingly toxic toward Gong Jun. It joined in every single smear campaign launched against him and frequently posted malicious memes deriding his looks. Among others, it reposted antis who claimed that the famous Fushimi Inari shrine (a shrine to the god of rice) was politically problematic, Hao Jingfang's accusations of Gong Jun ghosting her, and accused Gong Jun of bad acting using a cut from a Word of Honor behind-the-scenes of Gong Jun joking with the director and Zhang Zhehan. The account began to use vulgar and defamatory language that was at odds with its original rational, bystander persona.
In April 2022, this account was one of the main voices supporting a law clerk's attack on the Beijing Dongcheng Court. He refused to delete his post and continuously insisted that Zhang's case had not been accepted. He tagged the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate as well as the Beijing court, inciting fans to directly attack official accounts. He also revealed during this time that he was involved with the Undersea Poetry and Tea Society.
The account was frequently muted, prompting the creation of at least three other side accounts. Weibo accounts are tied to phone numbers, and the creation or purchase of side accounts requires a certain degree of Internet fluency, an action that was again at odds with the account's persona of a 69-year-old retiree who did not know how to use Weibo (his excuse for giving presents on Li Xuezheng's livestream).
In August 2022, on his muted side accounts, he changed the account intro to claim that he was muted for posting a video accusing Gong Jun of being the malicious industry competitor. His main account was subsequently muted for violating laws and regulations, and suspended from changing personal information. He deleted the accusations against Gong Jun from his side accounts. In the same month, he accused the CAC of corruption and complicity in Zhang's case. Li Xuezheng has never spoken against the CAC and circumstantial evidence suggests that the CAC helped suppress negative hot searches about Zhang Zhehan that CAPA tried to initiate on Weibo after Li was muted (Zaobao article slandering Zhang in February referred to "hot searches" that did not exist).
Besides his attacks against Gong Jun, the account also frequently attacks the CP fans of Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun, falsely accusing them of never supporting Li Xuezheng or clarifying for Zhang Zhehan, and referring to this group of fans with vulgar language.
Social Connections
Theatre background
Bai Ying's biography shows that he is a Ph.D. student at the Central Academy of Drama. He has directed plays and written critical essays on theatre. He has a WeChat public account dedicated to theatre critique.
With Pan Yan
Bai Ying previously interviewed Pan Yan, CAPA secretary general, for a Xinhua News article on immoral artists.
With Xie Yihua
The 老年人 account has posted multiple times in support of Xie Yihua.
With Han Song
Bai Ying's apparent work and personal relationship with Han Song links Hao Jingfang with the scam ring, as she previously co-authored a book with Han.