Chinese TV host suspended after ‘inappropriate’ Japan earthquake comments go viral

Name: Death toll from Japan’s New Year’s Day earthquake rises past 60 as search for survivors continues
Uploaded: 2024-01-03T12:24:27.000Z
Duration: 3 min 1 s
Description: Death toll from Japan’s New Year’s Day earthquake rises past 60 as search for survivors continues

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TV anchor Xiao Chenghao suggested in an online video that a recent deadly earthquake in Japan was punishment for its ‘deeds’. Photo: Weibo

Hayley Wongin Beijing

Published: 8:24pm, 3 Jan 2024

A Chinese TV host in the southern island province of Hainan has been suspended after his comments about a deadly earthquake in central Japan on New Year’s Day.

On Monday, the day the earthquake struck, Xiao Chenghao, an anchor with the regional Hainan Broadcasting Group, posted a video titled “A comeuppance arrived? A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Japan”.

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Death toll from Japan’s New Year’s Day earthquake rises past 60 as search for survivors continues

“It is surprising that on the first day of 2024, such a powerful earthquake occurred in Japan,” he said in a video that went viral on Chinese social media, but has since been deleted from his personal account.

“With such a large-scale natural disaster happening on the first day of the year, I’m afraid Japan will be shrouded by gloomy clouds for all of 2024.

“Perhaps [Japan should] do some deeds less, and should not have discharged nuclear water into the sea.”

Xiao’s “inappropriate comments” prompted the company to suspend him and investigate the incident, the broadcaster said in a statement on Tuesday, without elaborating.