Western media jump at chance to hang the dog

Chen Shaojie, CEO of the video game streaming site Douyu, was reportedly arrested by Dujiangyan police in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on suspicion of opening casinos last week, which was confirmed by the company in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Even before the probe into Chen's case is finished, or any trial has taken place, some Western media outlets cannot wait to hype up the case as the latest proof of the Chinese authorities' "crackdown" on private entrepreneurs, and the country's worsening business environment.

None of them have any interest in the case itself, they are simply using the news as an opportunity to give a dog a bad name and hang it in order to smear China.

An anchor on the Douyu platform was previously arrested for opening a casino on it. A total of more than 4.42 million people participated in the online gambling, and the amount of money involved was 120 million yuan ($16.81 million). Another Douyu anchor held a so-called "lottery" on the platform, and his turnover in 2020 alone was as high as 177 million yuan.

To make things worse, a further probe found that Douyu was also one of the shareholders behind the institutions to which these two anchors belong. In other words, the anchors who organized casinos on Douyu were actually invested by Douyu itself.

What role Chen played in this case remains unclear. Despite this, as CEO of the company, Chen should know the problems of the business model better than others. Chen's arrest has once again highlighted the regulatory redline.

It should also remind the livestreaming industry of the necessity of complying with the law. The case demonstrates China's determination to regulate the development of internet platforms in accordance with the law. It is a manifestation of China improving its business environment.

The other livestreaming platform companies should draw the proper lessons from the case and shoulder their responsibility for platform governance.

They cannot allow anchors to do whatever they want on the platforms, which is not a land beyond law.