The rich Chinese social media influencers are disappearing amid China's decision to ban the whole concept of "wealth-flaunting" on social media. The Chinese influencers famous for their rich and luxurious lifestyle won't have any place in social media.

Crackdown on Wealth-Flaunting Influencers in China

This move is aimed at promoting common prosperity and the President's (Xi Jinping) ideal of distributing equal wealth among the whole population.

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Image Source: Simple Wikipedia

Wang Hongquan, one of the Chinese influencers famous for his wealthy and luxurious lifestyle experienced the ban when on Tuesday, his account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, was inaccessible to his 4.3 million followers.

It further came to light that his account was blocked “due to violations of Douyin’s community guidelines.” Several other influencers with millions of followers were also blocked from the Douyin platform as they too were engaged in "wealth-flaunting".

Wang Hongquan, who earned the moniker ‘China’s Kim Kardashian’, had previously claimed to own seven properties in Beijing, and also that he never left the house in an outfit worth less than 10 million yuan ($1.38 million).

In April, China’s Cyberspace Administration, the national internet regulator, announced a campaign against all those influencers who “create a ‘wealth-flaunting’ persona, deliberately showcasing a luxurious life built on money, in order to attract followers and traffic.”

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Image Source: TikTok

The recent crackdown came amidst an economic slowdown that China is currently facing which has highly impacted the middle class, wherein the young people have a competitive job market, prompting some of them to withdraw from society and turn to social media for the only feasible career.

“When most people are unhappy with their own lives, they see all this online content that’s so disconnected from reality — seeing all these people who seem so happy and wealthy, it creates a pretty warped psychology,” Lyla Lai, a former beauty influencer who had over a million followers on Douyin, cited to NBC news.

According to state-owned media The Cover, the ban is part of China’s effort to create a “social-ecological environment that is civilized, healthy and harmonious.”

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