A company was fined 14 million RMB for insulting the People's Liberation Army of China.

The issue of inappropriate remarks by Li Haoshi, a talk show actor in the Chinese Laughing Fruit Culture, is still ongoing. On May 17, according to the WeChat "Cultural Tourism Beijing" official account of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Shanghai Xiaosheng Cultural Media Co., Ltd., and actor Li Haoshi wantonly tampered with the content of the performance declaration, and they were serious insults to the people's army in the performance, causing bad social impact.

The Beijing Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism has decided to impose administrative penalties on the company: a warning, confiscation of illegal gains of 1.325 million yuan, and a fine of 13.35 million yuan. At the same time, the Beijing Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism has decided to suspend all performance activities of the company in Beijing indefinitely.

The company was fined over 14 million yuan.

According to a report from China Daily on May 17, 2023, the Beijing Cultural Market Comprehensive Law Enforcement Team received a complaint from the public and decided to file an investigation against Shanghai Xiaosheng Culture Media Co., Ltd. It was found that the company and its actor Li Haoshi had arbitrarily altered the performance content and appeared in two consecutive talk show performances on May 13 with serious plots that insulted the People's Army, causing a bad social impact.

According to the "Regulations on the Administration of Commercial Performances" in China, the company's behavior violated Article 25 and Article 26. According to Article 46 of the same regulations, if a commercial performance violates Article 25, the cultural administrative department of the county-level people's government shall order it to stop the performance, confiscate the illegal gains, and impose a fine of not less than eight times but not more than ten times the illegal gains. The Beijing Cultural Market Comprehensive Law Enforcement Team decided to impose corresponding administrative penalties on the company: a warning, confiscation of illegal gains of 1.325 million yuan, and a fine of 13.35 million yuan.

At the same time, the personnel involved in the case, as well as their performance brokerage institutions and performance venue operating units, will be further held accountable by the law and regulations for their violations. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism has decided to indefinitely suspend all performance activities of the company involved in Beijing.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism stated that the People's Army is the strong guardian of national security and people's peace and will never allow any company or individual to wantonly slander the glorious image of the PLA, hurt the deep feelings of the broad masses of the people for the soldiers, or turn serious topics into entertainment. 

In addition, they will adhere to strengthening supervision and strict law enforcement, resolutely resist behaviors that only seek variety show effects without considering the consequences, and only talk about economic benefits without social responsibility. They hope that the majority of literary and artistic workers will abide by laws and regulations, correct their creative thinking, strengthen their moral cultivation, consciously talk about taste, style, and responsibility, and provide the people with nutritious spiritual food. 

The performances in Beijing have been confirmed to be cancelled.

In addition to being fined, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism has decided to indefinitely suspend all performance activities of the involved company in Beijing.

On May 17 at 7:30 pm, the involved company was supposed to have a performance at the National Culture Palace in Fuxingmen, Beijing, featuring stand-up comedians such as Tong Monan, Zhang Jun, and Nan Gua. However, their Beijing shows were either unable to be smoothly ordered or showed that all tickets were sold out. 

The involved company had multiple scheduled performances in Shanghai and other cities on May 17, but these shows were unable to be smoothly purchased. During the checkout process, the page would prompt "Please activate the project" and payment could not be completed.

In Shenzhen, the company had multiple performances scheduled on May 18 at the MixC Theater and on May 25 at the Huaxia Art Center. However, these shows have been taken down and were previously available for purchase.

The company terminates the actor contract involved.

On May 17, the involved company stated the punishment, stating that the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism had imposed a serious punishment due to the adverse social impact caused by this incident. The company had a mentality of luck and significant loopholes in management, which resulted in a heavy price paid. The entire team was deeply saddened and self-blaming. They sincerely accepted the severe criticism from all sectors of society and apologized again. They would accept the punishment, not shirk responsibility, and not evade the problem.

The company will take the following series of rectification measures: 

1. Immediately terminate the labor contract and artist brokerage contract of the involved actor. 

2. Disciplinary actions such as probation and salary reduction will be taken against the company's senior management team and relevant business teams respectively.

3. The company will immediately carry out a comprehensive rectification and learning of its offline performance business across the country. Regarding the impact of canceled performances on already purchased tickets, the company will properly and smoothly handle related matters such as ticket refunds and humbly accept criticism and education from the audience. 

4. The company will comb through weak links in management, establish effective and practical long-term mechanisms, ensure that the company has sufficient ability to control risks and fulfill industry responsibilities. 

5. The company will set up an independent review department outside of its performance business, allocate full-time on-site monitoring personnel, conduct full-process, no-dead-angle checks, and completely stay away from content that violates laws, regulations, public order, and good customs. 

6. Accelerate the response speed to emergencies, promptly impose strict sanctions on relevant personnel who violate laws, regulations, and internal rules and use mechanisms to ensure that all rules and regulations are implemented.

 7. Starting today, the company's management team, all employees, and actors will carry out themed education and form a regular practice to make everyone truly fearful in their hearts and cautious in their words. They will not touch political red lines or public bottom lines due to ignorance.