Hong Kong star’s face blurred out on Chinese state TV show after he shared news report suggesting former premier Zhou Enlai was gay

A Hong Kong actor’s face was blurred out on a programme on China’s state television after he shared a news report on social media about a new book suggesting that the former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai was gay, a news website reported.

Wong Hei’s face was pixelated out throughout his appearance on the reality TV programme The Great Challenge on the station CCTV 1 on Sunday evening, Kankanews.com reported.

The show features celebrities taking on various challenges and the programme with Wong involved stars becoming firefighters.

Wang An, a Beijing-based singer, posted on social media that Wong had “blasphemed” against Zhou Enlai on Facebook and called for him to be taken off the show.

Wang is a self-claimed anti-Taiwan independence singer and his post on January 1 now has over 6,000 likes and 1,000 shares on Weibo, China’s equivalent to Twitter.

“[Wong Hei] earns money and buys a flat in the mainland, eating and drinking well, then condemns mainland China when [he has] returned to Hong Kong and Taiwan. We have to report these kind of people,” wrote Wang.

The director of the programme replied to Wang on social media: “If we knew this, we wouldn’t have employed him; if employed, we wouldn’t have recorded; if recorded, we wouldn’t use; if used, we wouldn’t air.”