"Chinese Traditional Medicine for COVID-19 Has No Treatment Effect"…Medical Portal Raising Doubts 'Suspended'

On the 1st, a citizen holding a magnifying glass in Beijing, China, is reading a Global Times article about Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and her Asia tour. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] A popular Chinese portal site has reportedly become a target of government censorship after raising doubts about the effectiveness of a COVID-19 treatment, according to foreign media reports.

On the 21st, the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the social media account of Dingxiangyuan, a Chinese medical portal site, was suddenly suspended recently.

Dingxiangyuan is known to have faced such sanctions after posting content questioning the effectiveness of 'Lianhua Qingwen,' a COVID-19 treatment promoted by Chinese authorities. In April, Dingxiangyuan published an article stating that the traditional Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen had no effect on treating COVID-19. It also expressed concerns about the authorities distributing it as a treatment.

In response, SCMP said, "Although the authorities have not specified the exact reasons, there is growing suspicion linking the suspension to Dingxiangyuan's questioning of Lianhua Qingwen's effectiveness."

Previously, Chinese government censorship of public opinion had also sparked controversy. In May, social media accounts of economic experts who criticized China's stringent 'Zero COVID' policy were consecutively blocked.

On June 8th, a resident in Shanghai, China, is undergoing a COVID-19 test behind a barricade in a locked-down area. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Following the closure of the Weibo account of Honghao, head of the research center at Bocom International, a securities firm affiliated with Bank of Communications, who posted videos and articles about the Shanghai lockdown, the accounts of Fu Peng, chief economist at Northeast Securities, and Danbin, CEO of Shenzhen Oriental Harbor Investment, were also blocked with tags citing 'violation of relevant laws and regulations.' A professor who questioned China's Zero COVID policy had their comment function suspended on the news app Toutiao.

Wang Sichong, the only son of Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Chinese real estate conglomerate Wanda Group, had his Weibo account with 40 million followers deleted. He reportedly faced sanctions after posting content questioning the effectiveness of the COVID-19 treatment Lianhua Qingwen and Shanghai's epidemic prevention policies.

Meanwhile, recent reports that the Chinese government has begun to control algorithms of big tech companies suggest that internet censorship within China is likely to be further intensified.

On the 12th, the National Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country's internet regulatory agency, disclosed a list of 30 companies that registered their algorithms with the authorities under the 'Regulations on the Management of Algorithmic Recommendation Services for Internet Information.'

The list includes widely used Chinese services such as Tencent's WeChat, the leading search engine Baidu, and Alibaba's Tmall and Taobao online shopping platforms.

This means that the algorithms determining how these companies provide personalized content to users have come under the control of Chinese authorities. Analysts suggest that internet control in China will shift from a passive approach focused on censorship and deletion to a more active approach through algorithmic management, resulting in stronger regulation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.