Former Chinese national football star Hao Haidong posted a video online calling for the overthrow of the Chinese Communist Party, causing a major uproar inside China.
His wife, Ye Zhaoying, a former world No. 1 badminton player, also appeared in support, making this declaration by two state-promoted sports elites a serious blow to the Xi Jinping regime.

June 13, 2020
That very Mr. Hao posted a video on the Internet on the 4th calling for the “overthrow of the Communist Party,” causing a great uproar inside China.
The following is from an article by Akio Yaita, Taipei Bureau Chief of the Sankei Shimbun, published in the June 11 edition under the title, “Superstar’s Rebellion Shocks the Xi Regime.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping, an avid football fan, has emphasized on various occasions that “football education begins with children.”
As a result, many football schools were established throughout China.
When the author was stationed in Beijing as a correspondent, he visited several of them, and almost every school displayed a photograph of the Chinese national team that played in the 2002 Japan-Korea World Cup.
It was the only team in history to have advanced through the Asian qualifiers and reached the World Cup.
Those eleven players became legends for football boys throughout China.
Among them, the popularity of Hao Haidong, the ace striker who wore number 10, was especially high.
Mr. Hao, who holds the record for the most goals scored for the Chinese national team, had about 7.7 million followers on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.
That very Mr. Hao posted a video on the Internet on the 4th calling for the “overthrow of the Communist Party,” causing a great uproar inside China.
Mr. Hao’s Weibo account was immediately closed, and an enormous number of past articles reporting on him were deleted from the Internet one after another.
In the video, Mr. Hao emphasized that “the Chinese Communist Party, which has ignored human rights, trampled on democracy, and carried out killings in Hong Kong, must be annihilated.”
Regarding the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, he also asserted that it was “a biological-weapon attack launched by China against the world.”
Mr. Hao once belonged to the football team of the Chinese military and held the rank of major.
When he was young, he received offers from strong overseas teams and himself strongly wished to transfer, but this did not materialize because of opposition from the Chinese authorities.
After retiring, he temporarily became a coach, but it did not last long.
After that, he spoke freely on the Internet and at times criticized the government’s response to social problems, for which he was repeatedly warned by the authorities.
At the beginning of this year, he moved to Spain with his family, and recently he had been in frequent contact with Mr. Bannon, formerly chief strategist to U.S. President Trump, and Mr. Guo Wengui, a former Chinese businessman living in exile in the United States.
In the video, he also said that he would cooperate with the two men.
Some speculated that behind Mr. Hao’s video, released to coincide with the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident, in which the 1989 democracy movement was suppressed, there might be “the intention of the Trump administration,” which has been intensifying its confrontational stance toward China.
The video posted by Mr. Hao also showed his wife, Ye Zhaoying, aged 46, supporting her husband’s views.
Ms. Ye was a well-known badminton player who had once been ranked world No. 1 in women’s singles.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she faced fellow Chinese player Gong Zhichao in the women’s singles semifinal.
However, China’s upper leadership judged that Ms. Gong was a better match against the Danish player they would face in the final and had a higher chance of winning.
The team coach instructed Ms. Ye to lose deliberately, and Ms. Ye accepted this while crying, ending with the bronze medal.
The whole course of events was reported by the media, and Ms. Ye announced her retirement after the Olympics.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Hao were sports elites who had been selected by the state from childhood and given elite education for the purpose of enhancing national prestige.
Because they achieved results on the world stage, China’s state-run media had promoted them extensively for many years.
The fact that these two people, both highly well known and influential, issued a “declaration to overthrow the Communist Party” dealt far greater damage to the Xi Jinping regime than similar declarations made in the past by dissidents or human-rights lawyers.
(Taipei Bureau Chief)