Several places have reported on this, but Global Voices wins top-link for its headline: “Opinion Leader Charles Xue Forced to Prostitute Himself on Chinese State TV.”

Indeed, above, you’ll see Xue, an investor and influential social media presence, issuing one long self-criticism about the pratfalls of celebritydom. Remember, this was a guy who was arrested ostensibly for solicitation. Everyone has always speculated that it was actually for his outspokenness, which Xue seems to have confirmed with his 10-minute self-flagellation. 

Global Voices summarizes:

As an online celebrity and successful businessman, he attended many career talks, being interviewed by magazines and newspapers. His followers reached 5 millions in 2012 and he developed a habit of commenting on news and helping others to distribute their content. In 2013, he wrote in average 80 micro-blogs per day and had more than 12 million followers, a size equal to 3% of the 400 millions total internet population in China.

The CCTV host then commented that the Weibo communication mode has made Charles Xue egoistic because he was surrounded by so many friends.

Charles Xue then admitted that he could not possibly verify every piece of information he re-tweeted and that he was often emotional, not constructive and irresponsible. He said he felt himself like an emperor, “more powerful than a CCP secretary of a local government” as the number of fans he got is more than a major city. As a “star”, he was very high and lost himself.

The Washington Post has translations of more sound bites, including:

“It gratified my vanity greatly,” Xue said of the Internet. “I got used to my influence online and the power of my personal opinions . . . and I forgot who I am.”

And:

“First of all, I didn’t double-check my facts,” Xue said. “Secondly, I didn’t raise constructive suggestions to solve the problem. Instead, I just simply spread these ideas emotionally.”

At the end, he praised China’s anti-rumor laws, the same ones that have drawn criticism from provincial courts and everyone.

“It is very necessary to release these laws and regulations today,” he said in the video. “Without regulation, there’s no punishment for spreading the rumors.”

…“It’s not right for [popular bloggers] to behave higher than the law,” he said in a chastened tone. “If there is no moral standard or cost for slander, you can’t manage the Internet. And there are no limits. It becomes a big problem.”

Xue will probably get a reduced sentence for his cooperation. The authorities got the confession they wanted. Viewers get confirmation that Xue’s a pawn in the government’s anti-rumor campaign. Everyone wins?

Whatever happens in the privacy of one’s home is apparently not always private, especially if you’re a notorious rabblerouser with 12 million followers on Sina Weibo.

Chinese American Charles Xue, aka Xue Biqun (and Xue Manzi on Weibo, an anti-trafficking and environmental adovcate), was captured in Beijing last Friday for soliciting a 22-year-old prostitute. That’s hardly the end of the story though. In the past week, authorities have gleefully smeared him in public, including on, it seems, every CCTV news broadcast, emphasizing Xue’s confession and his love for sex parties. LOCK HIM WITH THE PEDOPHILES!

There was also this story from Global Times, a publication unashamed about doing others’ dirty work, in which Xue is painted as a slick, dissolute, late-paying john who prefers ’MERICA! over his motherland:

Local police said on Wednesday that when they found Xue, he first said he was an American citizen and claimed he would call his lawyer to handle this.

…Sex workers could only identify Xue by seeing his face as he had never revealed his name or any other personal information.

…Xue called one pimp, surnamed Ma, and asked her to introduce a girl to him the day before he was detained, but Ma refused, claiming Xue habitually delayed paying.

…Xue was disgruntled and went to where Ma lived. Ma was ordered to find four girls then Xue had sex with three of them.

Prostitution is technically illegal in China (as is porn, but we all know how effective anti-porn campaigns are, eh Xinhua?), but it’s tolerated, sometimes right out in the open, since it’s an ancient industry that’s as resilient as any. (Also, because authorities often peruse those pink-lit barber shops, KTV VIP rooms and special foot massages, but we’d hate to mention that, now would we?) Indeed, the case of Charles Xue is not merely about paid sex — 26 others were detained, it so happens — or his orgies, but part of a larger crackdown on people whom authorities dislike.

We could almost call it a wider sting against freedom advocates. We use “freedom” loosely here to mean anyone who attempts to say anything outside of what’s officially acceptable, i.e. possible. They are labeled “rumor mongerers,” a shrewd designation, since no one likes bratty-tatty types, as even American middle school girls can tell you.

But among the horrible “rumors,” we have this: “The Beijing police moved against Beijing Erma Interactive Marketing and Planning after online posts surfaced attacking Lei Feng…” Lei fucking Feng. Note, please, that Erma Interactive is somewhat of a shady organization that’ll elicit no sympathy, but still… Lei fucking Feng.

And that netizen who “slandered” the Eighth Route Army – away you go. And this, via SCMP, which almost seems too outrageous to be true, but isn’t actually all that shocking when you consider the person in charge of enforcing nebulous “anti-rumor-mongering” laws just might be your local central Anhui city’s deputy of the Public Security Bureau (who we bet is — rumor alert! — a chain-smoking lardhead with a 21-year-old mistress):

In an act that has outraged China’s online community on Thursday, police in central Anhui province detained an internet “rumour-maker” after he said 16 people died in a traffic accident – which officials had claimed only killed 10.

Lest you think that was a one-off, in Shiyan, Hubei, a netizen was detained for reporting the number of dead in a traffic accident as seven, when it was three.

If an official lies about his office’s tax revenue, if a real estate mogul withholds relocation payments, if a mayor starts a riot by disseminating outright lies about, say, power plant construction plans, CCTV will likely not care unless — and this is goddamn irony here — it’s exposed on Sina Weibo first, and authorities don’t delete the posts. But if you’re a blogger who misreports a death toll, RUMOR MONGERER, OFF TO THE CLINK.

But hey, at least Charles Xue, that degenerate sex hound, is behind bars. Yay to justice, which continues to judge everyone equally, under the same laws.

Adapted with permission from Hug China.

Chinese American angel investor and Sina Weibo celebrity Charles Xue (a.k.a. Xue Manzi, with more than 12 million followers) has been detained in Beijing for “suspected involvement in prostitution,” China News reported on Sunday.

On August 23, off the tip from a local resident, Chaoyang District police captured Xue along with a 22-year-old woman from Henan province in a residential compound, according to the official weibo of Beijing Public Security Office:

After questioning, the two confessed to solicitation. The police department has placed the two under administrative detention in accordance with the law.

Charles Xue, whose Chinese name is Xue Biqun, is a prominent liberal celebrity who has actively campaigned against child trafficking. Born in Guangdong province in 1953, he is an American citizen. His father, Xue Zizheng, was a vice minister in China’s central government and died in 1980 at the age of 75.

Could Xue’s arrest be the result of retaliation for his outspokenness? Hu Xijin, the chief editor of Global Times, gives us some clues through his Weibo comment regarding this affair (now deleted, but preserved via screenshot):

We cannot exclude the possibility that authorities were using prostitution to entrap Xue Manzi. It is an unspoken rule that all governments worldwide frame political opponents through sex scandals, tax evasion charges. So here’s a reminder to those who engage in political dissent, if you wish to go down this path, keep your butts clean. If you have shortcomings yet still take on officials, you’ll be squashed sooner or later. And also, a reminder to the government, crack down on the right target and the process won’t be nitpicked, otherwise it may backfire.

Xue’s arrest comes during a continued crackdown by police in China against “online rumor mongers.”

Beijing police detained Liu Hu, a journalist at the popular newspaper News Express Daily based in Guangzhou, on suspicion of spreading rumors and stirring trouble after he alleged in late July that a senior government official was negligent with his public duties, People’s Daily reported on Sunday.

Also, Internet celebrity Zhou Lubao was arrested by Suzhou police for spreading online rumors and blackmailing people for up to several million yuan, Xinjingbao (New Beijing Daily) reported. The report said Zhou had accused the mayor of Lanzhou of wearing luxury watches that he could not afford.

And last week, Yang Xiuyu (a.k.a. Lierchaisi), founder of the Erma Company, and employee Qin Zhihui (a.k.a. Qinhuohuo) were arrested by Beijing police for “fabricating and spreading online rumors” regarding corruption, and “defaming the image of Lei Feng.”

Outspoken Chinese-American investor Charles Xue arrested in Beijing over ‘prostitution’… (Hug China)