https://www.scmp.com/rss/309188/feed Charles Xue Biqun, also known by his alias Xue Manzi, is a billionaire venture capitalist and one of the most active investors in the Chinese internet industry, having invested in hundreds of internet startup firms. Born in 1953, Xue is the son of a former deputy mayor of Beijing. He studied foreign relations at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a naturalised US citizen. Xue is a leading liberal commenator on the Chinese social media scene, and has participated in or funded many... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Chinese-American investor and influential blogger Charles Xue Biqun is yet to be charged by state prosecutors, four months after he was detained by police in a Beijing prostitution bust, Chinese media reported this week. The 60-year-old Xue, who is better known by his online alias "Xue Manzi",  was detained in August in a residential compound in Beijing on suspicion of soliciting prostitutes. He made his last public appearance repenting on CCTV while confessing an "addiction to prostitutes", and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1403009/four-months-after-prostitution-arrest-influential-investor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1403009/four-months-after-prostitution-arrest-influential-investor?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Jan 2014 06:45:00 +0000 Lu Chao - the 24-year old woman who documented her experience with leukaemia on her microblog and triggered a social media campaign - has died on Thursday in Beijing. A year ago, her posts led to a watershed campaign for online fundraising endorsed by the Big-Vs - prominent weibo users posting under their real names and with a large online following. Her death comes amid a crackdown on such Big-Vs, and shortly after the detention of Charles Xue, the Big-V who initiated the fundraising campaign... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1313577/social-media-celebrity-lu-chao-dies-eve-mid-autumn-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1313577/social-media-celebrity-lu-chao-dies-eve-mid-autumn-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Sep 2013 01:01:27 +0000 Wang Gongquan, a prominent Chinese venture capitalist and close friend of arrested rights activist Xu Zhiyong, has been detained by police on Friday at his home in Beijing. More than 20 policemen confronted the 52-year old venture capitalist at his home in Beijing and took him away, said Teng Biao, a fellow activist  and a lecturer at the University of Politics and Law in Beijing. The policemen told Wang that he was being summoned for questioning on suspicion of "gathering a crowd to disturb... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1309023/outspoken-investor-wang-gongquan-detained-police-amid-widening?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1309023/outspoken-investor-wang-gongquan-detained-police-amid-widening?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Sep 2013 05:32:44 +0000 Beijing's clampdown on "rumour-mongers" in recent weeks has led to the detention of commentators from all walks of mainland social media - but it is the influential voices among them that the government wants to silence in order to stem the spread of liberal views. On Friday, state media stepped up its already extensive coverage of the detention of Charles Xue. The Chinese-American venture capitalist, who has more than 12 million followers on popular micro blogging platform Sina Weibo, is one of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1300842/beijing-aims-silence-influential-social-media-voices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1300842/beijing-aims-silence-influential-social-media-voices?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The United States did not sack then president Bill Clinton over his alleged affair with an intern in the 1990s. So was China justified in showing on national TV the arrest of outspoken internet celebrity Xue Biqun, better known as Xue Manzi, for visiting a prostitute? After all, it was only his personal business. And what illegal measures had police taken to bust Xue? Should Chinese people now fear that hidden cameras and wiretaps have been installed in their bedrooms by police? These are just... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1300033/chinas-liberals-fight-back-over-spate-rumour-arrests?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1300033/chinas-liberals-fight-back-over-spate-rumour-arrests?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Aug 2013 03:54:41 +0000 The central government's campaign against online "rumour mongering" appears to have widened further - with more reports of arrests, detentions and website closures yesterday - raising fears the moves could be a smokescreen to quell dissent. Police in Shanxi province announced the detention or arrest of more than 60 people and the closure of more than two dozen websites in recent weeks, state media reported. Shanghai police similarly said they had arrested some 170 people accused of posting... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1299642/rush-rumour-arrests-china-adds-fears-crackdown-dissent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1299642/rush-rumour-arrests-china-adds-fears-crackdown-dissent?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The detention of an outspoken social media celebrity on Friday has triggered fears among supporters that the bust was a government attempt to discredit him amid a campaign to rein in public opinion. Beijing police on Sunday said venture capitalist Charles Xue, 60, had confessed to involvement in prostitution after he was caught with a 22-year-old woman at a Beijing residential compound. The son of a former deputy mayor of Beijing and a naturalised American citizen, Xue, one of China’s best-known... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1299519/outspoken-celebrity-bloggers-arrest-triggers-online-debate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1299519/outspoken-celebrity-bloggers-arrest-triggers-online-debate?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Aug 2013 11:43:11 +0000 Beijing police detained an outspoken internet celebrity as well as a journalist who has accused a senior government official of dereliction of duty, raising concerns that an increasingly tough crackdown against liberal opinion is taking place. Charles Xue Biqun, a venture capitalist better known by his alias Xu Manzi, was held on Friday along with a young woman for suspected involvement in prostitution, Beijing police said via their official weibo social media account yesterday. It also... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1299281/chinese-american-venture-capitalist-charles-xue-taken-away-beijing-police?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1299281/chinese-american-venture-capitalist-charles-xue-taken-away-beijing-police?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Aug 2013 02:24:05 +0000 Famous Chinese-American angel investor and social media celebrity Charles Xue has been detained in Beijing for suspected involvement in prostitution, the Beijing police said on Sunday.  After a tip-off from local residents, officers from the Chaoyang District police department captured Xue, 60, along with a 22-year-old woman from Henan Province in a residential compound in northern Beijing, said a post on Beijing's police official Weibo social media account. "After questioning, the duo confessed... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1299448/outspoken-chinese-american-investor-charles-xue-detained-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1299448/outspoken-chinese-american-investor-charles-xue-detained-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Aug 2013 02:02:31 +0000 In a unusually well-publicised police operation, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday that Beijing police have detained and launched criminal investigations into four people in an attempt to “eradicate the breeding ground for internet rumours”. Police said Erma, a Beijing-based internet marketing company, spread rumours about poor governance and official corruption in China to increase their influence on social media and gain financial benefits. Lengthy stories about the misdeeds of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1298276/beijing-police-detain-online-commentators-crackdown-rumours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1298276/beijing-police-detain-online-commentators-crackdown-rumours?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Aug 2013 01:10:14 +0000 Sina Weibo yesterday published a list of its most influential users for 2012, in categories which include internet celebrities, media, education and government. Former head of Google China and current venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee tops out the first and all the other categories with a score for the year of 1,322 - calculated with Sina's own "precision" algorithm, which takes into account variables such as the number of original tweets, retweets, comments, the downstream 'influence' of users... https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1128533/who-are-top-movers-and-shakers-chinese-social-media?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1128533/who-are-top-movers-and-shakers-chinese-social-media?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Jan 2013 04:52:45 +0000