Video blogs by critics of China’s Communist Party attract many fans

BOOKISH AND soft-spoken, Wen Zhao never expected to become a celebrity. In Toronto, where he lives, Mr Wen is often asked for selfies by adoring fans (female ones are especially keen, he says bashfully). He owes his fame to a video blog, updated every two or three days, in which he talks in Mandarin about current affairs, often very critically of China’s ruling Communist Party. His viewers are mainly ethnic Chinese living outside China. But Mr Wen, who is 45, reckons many are in China itself, where he was born and grew up.

In recent years party-controlled media have been trying to extend their influence abroad by buying up Chinese-language newspapers or reaching deals to provide them with news. But vloggers such as Mr Wen (pictured in his typical on-camera garb) are attracting huge audiences among overseas Chinese with commentary that does not follow the party line. They also appear to be penetrating the great firewall of China, as the country’s system of online censorship is often known.