Yaoyao-chan: Zhao Wei Appears Overseas — What Has Made Her Age So Much?
This video reviews Zhao Wei's experiences over the past five years. From the debt crisis faced by Zhao Wei and her husband in 2020, their involvement in the Sun Lijun case, and Huang Youlong's arrest in France, to the removal of Zhao Wei's works in 2021, her secret divorce from Huang Youlong, and her activities abroad, followed by her recent failed attempts at a comeback and her public appearance in Singapore, the program details the ups and downs of her life over these five years.
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I've caught a bit of a cold these past two days, and you can clearly tell my voice is a bit hoarse today. But there's nothing I can do about it, so I hope everyone will bear with me. You might have to endure my slightly raspy voice in the broadcasts over the next few days. Especially since it's the turn of the season between autumn and winter, I want to remind everyone: don't be greedy for coolness in the morning and evening, add or remove clothes as needed, and you won't have to suffer through long-term illness like I am.
Now, what we are discussing today actually happened not long ago. On the evening of October 20th this year, at a hair show at Ngee Ann City on Orchard Road in Singapore, someone in the crowd recognized a 50-year-old woman and started calling her name. This person was Zhao Wei, who writes some scripts herself and uses AI with friends to create some film and television content. This was her first time facing a camera at a public event in five years. When the photos were sent back to China, the most common comment in the discussion sections was that she had aged; her skin was tanned, and her eye bags and nasolabial folds were very obvious, making her look like a completely different person from the "Little Swallow" in the audience's memories.
Actually, as a woman myself, I strongly dislike using a woman's appearance as the sole standard for evaluating them. It seems that no matter what achievements a woman has made or what storms she has weathered, it all eventually comes down to her wrinkles, her skin tone, and whether she is still pretty. And for a famous woman like Zhao Wei, this seems to be even more the case. But it is very regrettable that when we look back at her past five years, it seems that apart from her appearance, she really has no other works for people to judge.
When a reporter asked her if she wanted to act, she smiled and said that everyone could watch the reruns. She said it very lightly, but in these five years, all the works she starred in have been removed from domestic platforms. The film she directed was finally released this year, but the director's name was changed to someone else's. The equity under her name has been frozen by the court until 2029. Five years ago, in the winter, she was still sitting in the mentor's chair on a variety show. From then until now, what exactly happened to her and her ex-husband, Huang Youlong?
When I went for an audition, someone said you don't have a lead actress face, so you can't play the lead. So I want to ask the director, is there really such a thing as a lead face and a supporting face? The person who says this kind of thing to you is really...
On October 2, 2020, the second season of the Tencent Video variety show "Everybody Stand By" premiered, with four people sitting in the mentor's chairs: Chen Kaige, Derek Yee, Guo Jingming, and Zhao Wei. She was the only woman among the four mentors. In the third episode of the show, actress Huang Mengying said she had been rejected from auditions many times, with the reason being that she didn't have a lead actress face. As she spoke, she choked up, and then others used this reason to shut you out. So sometimes I doubt myself, I just think, I just think I... the person who says this kind of thing to you, she is really...
Zhao Wei cursed on the spot, swearing on behalf of those who were interviewing her, and the production team had to mute it. This segment also trended on social media. That year, Zhao Wei was forty-four. On the 2019 Hurun Rich List, Zhao Wei and her husband were still ranked 912th. She had won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards, the first film she directed grossed 700 million, and she worked as both a producer and an investor; the media called her the female version of Warren Buffett.
The web drama she produced, "Everyone Wants to Meet You," starred the later-disgraced Zhang Zhehan and others, and featured a veteran Singaporean actor named Li Nanxing in a supporting role. In September 2019, she even went to Singapore specifically to promote the show. On December 5, 2020, the finale of "Everybody Stand By" was recorded at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Center. Zhao Wei brought the actors from her team on stage to accept interviews from reporters and discuss the situation of actresses. This was the last time she appeared on a domestic stage in such a capacity.
"Invite Qin Hao. Yes, for the past two days we have been following my husband in Beijing, and I looked and thought, 'Oh my, why is my husband sitting there?'" The audience below did not know that by this year, her family had already run into trouble.
On July 3, 2020, netizens discovered that Zhao Wei had deleted all photos related to her husband, Huang Youlong, on Instagram, not even leaving behind a photo of Huang Youlong holding their daughter's hand from behind. Her studio stepped forward to deny the divorce, saying the rumors online were groundless. Huang Youlong is from Shaodong, Hunan, holds a Singaporean passport, and married Zhao Wei in 2008. The couple had bought shares in Alibaba Pictures together and were both fined by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, with a ban on entering the securities market. We covered these details in our episode "From Zhongnanhai to Telecom Fraud Parks: Zhao Wei," so we will not repeat them here.
In 2020, Huang Youlong's troubles first appeared in terms of money. In July of the previous year, Hong Kong socialite Cai Yifeng publicly demanded repayment from him on Facebook. We discussed that gambling debt lawsuit in a previous episode, but there were two other debts even larger than the gambling debt. In April 2017, he pledged his most valuable asset, a 67.5% stake in the Hong Kong-listed company Ronshine China, to a company called Zhize Venture Capital to borrow a large sum of money. Further investigation revealed that Zhize Venture Capital was a subsidiary of China Huarong, a state-owned financial asset management company. In March 2020, the pledged equity was officially transferred to China Huarong.
The second debt fell on Zhao Wei herself. In 2017, a company controlled by Huang Youlong's sister, Huang Li, borrowed 1.8 billion yuan through Minsheng Trust. Zhao Wei, Huang Youlong, and businessman Shi Yuzhu signed as joint guarantors. The loan was due in 2021. The money problems were only just beginning.
What truly changed the fate of the two in 2020 was a piece of news from Beijing. On April 19, 2020, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Vice Minister of Public Security Sun Lijun was under investigation. One of the areas Sun Lijun was in charge of was affairs related to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. On the surface, this news had nothing to do with Zhao Wei and her husband. Huang Youlong's lawyer later explained a past event in a French court: In 2018, Sun Lijun approached Huang Youlong and asked him to invest about 5 million USD into a security company. This company hired some Hong Kong police officers who were accused of using violence against protesters during the Hong Kong democratic movement. Huang Youlong later told a friend over the phone that he felt he had no choice at the time. When a Vice Minister of Public Security falls, everyone he dealt with and all the money he handled must be re-examined, and Huang Youlong was one of them.
On March 22, 2021, a private jet took off from Iceland and landed at Bordeaux Airport in France. Huang Youlong walked down the stairs, and French police were already waiting for him. The French police held an Interpol Red Notice, which police across countries call a "Red Notice application." This Red Notice was issued by the procuratorial organs of Dongguan, Guangdong. The charges written on the warrant were, first, money laundering, and second, involvement in an embezzlement case at a P2P lending company called Tuandaiwang. Tuandaiwang was the largest P2P platform in Dongguan; it collapsed in March 2019, and its boss, Tang Jun, was later sentenced to 20 years in prison. Huang Youlong had invested in this company. The warrant did not mention Sun Lijun at all. The French police confiscated Huang Youlong's passport and locked him in a detention center in Bordeaux to await extradition proceedings.
His phone was not confiscated. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, Huang Youlong had a habit of recording every call he made. Over the next few days, calls came in one after another from China. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Radio France, and Le Monde later obtained the French court records. The records show that those who called him included Jack Ma, two other friends, and three senior security officials. These six people were all talking about the same thing: as long as Huang Youlong returned to China and cooperated with the Sun Lijun case, the Red Notice could be withdrawn, extradition could be avoided, and the money laundering charges could potentially be dropped.
We quoted a line from that phone call involving Jack Ma in our previous episode, 《Zhao Wei: From Zhongnanhai to the Telecom Fraud Compound》. This time, we will read the phone transcripts released by the Chinese edition of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) word for word. Huang Youlong sounded somewhat surprised when he received Jack Ma's call. He asked, "Did they come to you?" Jack Ma replied, "Yeah, they said only I can persuade you to come back." Huang Youlong said, "They are using the Dongguan matter as an excuse now. If Sun Lijun's matter is made clear, he definitely won't pursue me." "Are you sure he's giving you a guarantee? I can't trust what others say." At this point, Jack Ma said, "Personally, I feel you have no other way out either. He's offering you this policy now; if you don't return now, he will definitely crush you to death." Huang Youlong said, "I understand, let me think about it." Then he hung up the phone.
Court records show that Jack Ma told Huang Youlong that senior officials from the Chinese anti-corruption agency found him and assigned him this task. A report by the UK's Guardian also quoted a few more sentences from Jack Ma: "They spoke with him very seriously, guaranteeing that as long as Huang Youlong returns now, he will be given an opportunity for exemption of liability. If he doesn't return, the noose will only get tighter." Currently, these few sentences are only available in English reports and the original Chinese phrasing has not been made public. Jack Ma later also called Huang Youlong's lawyer and repeated the exact same meaning. At the time of making this phone call, Jack Ma himself had just experienced a period of forced disappearance. In October 2020, he publicly criticized financial regulation, the IPO of Ant Group was suspended, and he himself did not make any public appearances for three months, only reappearing in a video in January 2021. Huang Youlong's French lawyer later told The Guardian, "We watched Jack Ma disappear, and we watched him reappear and pledge his loyalty. The Chinese government's expectation of Huang Youlong is the same: come back and prove which side you are on."
Another phone call came from Kui Fu jie, the deputy head of the Sun Lijun special investigation team under the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI): "I have chatted with your wife." We also mentioned this sentence in the previous episode. In the court records, Kui Fujie said a lot more afterwards. He stated that he was speaking on behalf of the highest authority he was capable of representing. The conditions he offered were no criminal prosecution, revocation of the Interpol Red Notice, freedom of movement, and unfreezing of bank accounts. Freedom of movement was one of the conditions he offered.
Another person who made a call was Zeng Guowei, a senior official of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, who is also a friend of Huang Youlong. What Zeng Guowei said on the phone was more blunt than anyone else. He said, "Over there, it basically comes down to two moves: the first move is to freeze all your money, and the second move is to use your family members to threaten you." Both of these moves were deployed in the spring of that year. Huang Youlong later said during his phone call with Jack Ma that they had arrested his older sister and used her to threaten him.
Huang Youlong also pleaded in another recorded phone conversation for Li Jiangzhou, an affiliate of the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, to release people. Li Jiangzhou is an official sanctioned by the United States. Li Jiangzhou replied, "No, that's not a condition, just come back as soon as possible. Once you return to Hong Kong, your Red Notice can even be removed." This was the second move.
The first move fell upon Zhao Wei. The 1.8 billion yuan guarantee signed by Zhao Wei was due to mature in 2021. Huang Li's company could not repay the money, and Minsheng Trust's lawsuit suing the three guarantors began in March 2021, which was the same month and the same time Huang Youlong was arrested in Bordeaux. From April to June 2021, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court successively froze the equity of 6 companies under Zhao Wei's name, totaling approximately 18.6 million yuan, due to a guarantee contract dispute.
Zhao Wei was in China at this time. Kui Fujie said he had chatted with Zhao Wei, but Zhao Wei never uttered a single word publicly about what was discussed. What she faced was one court freeze order after another, while her husband received one phone call after another in a French detention center.
In May 2021, China formally submitted an extradition request for Huang Youlong to the French government. Sources from Radio France Internationale (RFI) said that a representative from the Chinese Embassy in France contacted the prosecutors in Bordeaux three times in succession, demanding to push the matter forward. The source said this approach was unprecedented in extradition cases in Bordeaux. After reviewing the case, the Bordeaux prosecutors determined that the actions alleged by China did not constitute a crime under French law, and requested the court to reject the extradition. Huang Youlong's lawyers laid out all the events of the past few months in court: threats, extortion, false promises, and the arrest of his family members. The transcripts of those recordings were also submitted to the court.
On June 25, 2021, a Hong Kong company named Wanhui sued Huang Youlong in the High Court of Hong Kong, seeking to recover a loan and interest totaling 298 million Hong Kong dollars, with an annual interest rate of 24%. Creditors began to knock on the door. On July 15, 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal in Bordeaux rejected China's extradition request. Radio France Internationale stated that the court's ruling was largely based on the phone records submitted by Huang Youlong. Jack Ma's phone call urging him to return ultimately became evidence that he remained in France. Huang Youlong stayed in France; he did not return.
Eight days later, on July 23, 2021, Vicki Zhao appeared in Chengdu. The luxury brand Fendi held a night party in the Tianfu New Area, and Vicki Zhao made a grand appearance as the brand spokesperson in a camel-colored suit. That night, she posted on Weibo: "A wonderful night, a perfect party." According to later reports, also on July 23, 2021, Vicki Zhao and Huang Youlong secretly divorced. This was Vicki Zhao's last time appearing at a commercial event as a celebrity in China.
More than a month later, on the night of August 26, her name began to disappear from the Chinese internet. Around 9:00 PM on August 26, 2021, a netizen was watching Episode 11 of Season 2 of My Fair Princess when the video suddenly cut off before it finished. Around 10:00 PM, a reporter from the Beijing News searched video websites and found that Vicki Zhao's name had already been removed from the cast and crew lists of My Fair Princess, Romance in the Rain, and Tiger Mom. Ten minutes later, a second search showed that these entire works had been removed from shelves. Her Weibo Super Topic was closed, and some celebrities hurriedly deleted past Weibo posts related to her. Zheng Shuang, Huo Zun, and a few others were also dealt with on the same night. However, everyone else had an official reason given—Zheng Shuang for tax evasion, and Huo Zun for personal life issues. Vicki Zhao had none; the authorities did not announce any reason, and haven't to this day.
There was much speculation online. Some said it was because Zhang Zhehan, an artist under her company, had just been blacklisted that August over old photos near the Yasukuni Shrine; others dug up the old incident from 20 years ago when she wore a magazine outfit featuring the Japanese military flag; still others claimed it was related to the fallen party secretary of Hangzhou. None of these explanations could account for why even her name was wiped from her works. As we discussed in a previous episode, only one thing matched the timeline: in July 2021, Huang Youlong did not return.
On August 27 and 28, rumors spread wildly online that Vicki Zhao had taken a private jet overnight to flee to Bordeaux, France, to the winery belonging to her and Huang Youlong. On the afternoon of August 29, Vicki Zhao posted a photo on Instagram saying she was with her parents. She left a comment below: "Best reading time in early autumn in Beijing." Soon after, the post was deleted. She claimed she was in Beijing. On September 12, she left four characters under the Weibo post of female director Li Mengqiao: "Happy birthday." Over 2,000 replies quickly flooded in beneath the comment, almost all asking if she was doing well and wishing her peace. This remained one of the few traces she left online after being blacklisted.
From this point on, a rumor circulated persistently online: Vicki Zhao had been subjected to exit control, meaning she was restricted from leaving the country and couldn't go abroad. This rumor circulated for 5 years, making it feel like the truth.
Jack Ma, who had made the phone call urging Huang Youlong to return, had also left by this time. At the end of 2021, Jack Ma left China and was subsequently photographed in Japan, Australia, and Thailand, staying abroad for over a year. In March 2023, he returned to Hangzhou. According to Reuters, it was the newly appointed Premier Li Qiang who personally stepped in to persuade him to return. Vicki Zhao never spoke out.
In France, Huang Youlong was still trying to find a way to get that Red Notice rescinded. Huang Youlong's lawyers submitted an application to the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF) requesting the deletion of the Red Notice. The commission is composed of international judges and legal experts specifically tasked with reviewing whether Interpol alerts issued by various countries comply with regulations. In January 2022, the commission made a decision to remove Huang Youlong's name and the Red Notice from Interpol's database.
The commission's wording was subtle. On the one hand, it stated that the materials provided by the Dongguan prosecutors had made Huang Youlong's alleged involvement in the case sufficiently specific; on the other hand, it stated that the Bordeaux court had determined the case to have a political nature, and that Huang Youlong would face risks if sent back to China—a conclusion that could not be ignored. There were nearly 300 Red Notices deleted by this commission that year, and Huang Youlong was one of them.
Huang Youlong was safe in France, but his assets were falling into other hands one by one. As mentioned earlier, his most valuable asset, shares of Dragonite International, had already been transferred to a pledge under China Huarong as early as 2020. His creditors in Hong Kong came knocking one after another. In 2023, the landlord of Villa Bel-Air, the luxury mansion he rented in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, sued him in court to recover unpaid rent and miscellaneous expenses amounting to approximately HKD 2.8 million.
Nor did he and Vicki Zhao make a clean break as later statements claimed. In March 2022, Huang Youlong handed over his position as president of a wine investment company in France to a young man born in 2001 named Huang Mingzheng. Hong Kong media reported that year that Vicki Zhao held a 70% stake in the company. In October 2023, Huang Youlong's father, Huang Xiaocheng, passed away in his hometown in Shaodong, Hunan. According to reports, villagers attending the funeral photographed the large screen in the mourning hall, where the names of family members were listed. Vicki Zhao's name was also among them, identified as a filial daughter-in-law.
At this point, two years and three months had passed since the rumored divorce. For over two full years, Zhao Wei had almost never appeared in public. The outside world could only catch glimpses of her in sporadic photos taken by chance, showing her wearing a hat and a mask, indicating she was still in the country. She took the initiative to speak out again in 2024. That year, several matters buried in 2021 began to yield results one after another.
On January 22, 2024, a company under China Huarong Asset Management appointed two individuals from Ernst & Young as receivers to take over approximately 2.86 billion shares of Dragon Pride held by Huang Youlong, accounting for about 55% of the company's issued shares. The shares he had pledged seven years ago were officially seized by the state-owned asset management company at this time, and Huang Youlong's control over this listed company became nominal from that day on. China Huarong was originally a company established by the state to handle bad bank debts. When Huang Youlong pledged his shares to borrow money in 2017, the chairman of Huarong was still Lai Xiaomin. Lai Xiaomin fell from power in 2018 and was executed in January 2021. Since then, Huarong has undergone large-scale restructuring, and the money lent out in the past began to be recovered one by one. In March 2020, Huang Youlong's pledged shares were transferred under the name of China Huarong Asset Management, which was precisely during this cleanup period. It was also in 2024 that Zhao Wei's situation eased slightly. Starting in February, netizens discovered that her Weibo profile once again displayed her representative works such as Painted Skin and My Fair Princess, Douban restored her stills, the mosaics on videos on Bilibili were removed, and the second season of Kangxi Incognito Travel, which she starred in during her early years, was re-listed on video platforms, much to the excitement of her fans. In March, Hong Kong media reported that she would make a comeback as early as June, and her team was already in contact with editors-in-chief of fashion magazines. The comeback did not happen; what came instead were court notices and auction house announcements. On April 11, 2024, the Beijing Fourth Intermediate People's Court froze 5 million yuan of Zhao Wei's equity in Hebao Entertainment Group, effective until April 10, 2027. The 2021 round of freezing was about to expire, and this latest round followed immediately. In May 2024, a sea-view duplex mansion that Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong had bought in Sham Tseng, Hong Kong, was put up for auction with a starting price of 49 million HKD, more than 20 million less than what they had paid for it, but it failed to sell. In November, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court listed Zhao Wei as a person subject to enforcement for a target amount of 8,488 yuan. The cause was the 2016 acquisition of Wanjia Culture, after which more than 400 shareholders filed lawsuits for compensation. One of the shareholders won the case, and since the money had not been received, they applied for compulsory enforcement. Many people online joked about this figure, saying it was the cost of one of Zhao Wei's meals. In September 2024, Dragon Pride released its interim report, which stated that Zhao Wei was Huang Youlong's spouse and was therefore deemed to have an interest in the shares held by Huang Youlong. On December 4, 2024, the writer Chiung Yao passed away in Taiwan. Zhao Wei posted a tribute on Weibo, her first update in three years. The character "Little Swallow" (Xiao Yanzi) was written by Chiung Yao. The topic of Zhao Wei mourning Chiung Yao quickly trended on search results and was then censored.
However, the really massive figures are in Hong Kong. On December 23, Wise Choice Ventures sued Huang Youlong in the Hong Kong High Court, seeking the recovery of HKD 753 million in principal plus HKD 372 million in interest, totaling about HKD 1.15 billion, with annual interest calculated at 20%. Wise Choice Ventures is the same company to which Huang Youlong pledged his shares to borrow money back in 2017, and behind it is China Huarong. Huang Youlong's biggest creditor in Hong Kong is a state-owned asset management company. Five days later, on the afternoon of December 28, Zhao Wei posted a statement on Weibo, saying that she had officially divorced Mr. Huang many years ago, that their marital relationship had long been legally dissolved, and that any events, remarks, or news reports about him had nothing to do with her. She asked all parties to acknowledge these facts and not drag her into false associations. At 2:16 p.m. that same day, Guoshi Direct, an account under China News Service, published a report titled "Zhao Wei Officially Announces Divorce," and the topic surged to number one on the Weibo hot search list, with its status marked as boiling. This time, the topic was not censored. According to Wikipedia, the host of this topic was none other than Guoshi Direct. The exact same person published two Weibo posts in the same month: the topic mourning Qiong Yao was censored, while the one cutting ties with Huang Youlong, led by an account with official backing, was sent to the top of the hot search list. Yet, this statement contradicts the facts in several places. She claimed they divorced many years ago, but just one year and two months prior, she was still acting as a filial daughter-in-law at Huang Youlong's father's mourning hall, and just three months prior, she was still listed as Huang Youlong's spouse in Allied Group's interim report. On January 15, 2025, the financial media outlet Yema Finance published an article questioning whether Zhao Wei or Allied Group was lying. Six days later, on January 21, Zhao Wei submitted a document to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange stating that her divorce from Huang Youlong took effect on the date of the relevant event, and therefore she no longer held spousal rights to Huang Youlong's shares. The document did not specify which day was the date of the relevant event. In the spring of 2021, those who urged Huang Youlong to return to China used two tactics: first, freezing his assets beforehand, and second, putting pressure on her family. Huang Youlong did not return. Three years later, the court orders freezing Zhao Wei's assets have been extended round after round, the listed company taken from Huang Youlong belongs to the state-owned Huarong, and the entity suing him for 1.15 billion is also Huarong. At this moment, Zhao Wei publicly announced her divorce to cut ties with Huang Youlong, and her statement was pushed to the top of the hot search list by an account with official backing. Huang Youlong's lawyer once said they expected Huang Youlong to return to prove which side he stood on. Huang Youlong did not return, and Zhao Wei drew a clear line between them with a public statement. Judging by the results, the only way the system allows Zhao Wei to be seen again is precisely this one.
After announcing her divorce, Zhao Wei began trying to make a public reappearance. She increased the frequency of her Weibo updates, posting travel photos and words of self-encouragement. Some people recognized her at the airport, others asked her to take photos together in restaurants, and she was even willing to take off her mask. Her daughter studies in Switzerland, and on July 23, 2025, some netizens encountered her at the Beijing airport with her daughter, preparing to go to Dali, Yunnan for a vacation. Rumors about her have never stopped over the past few years. For a while, rumors circulated online that she had died of stomach cancer, which was later proven to be a producer who shared the same name. There was another rumor online that grew increasingly out of hand, with people linking her to telecommunication fraud compounds in northern Myanmar, accompanied by spliced images and curses directed at her. On July 12, 2025, Zhao Wei's older brother, Zhao Jian, published a long article stating that some people had maliciously and forcibly linked Zhao Wei to telecom fraud in northern Myanmar, and that they had already reported it to the police. The police discovered that one of the masterminds behind the scenes was a lawyer, who told the police he did so to attract attention and expand his business. Zhao Jian said that his sister chose to remain silent in the past to preserve her dignity, but now she has filed a lawsuit, which the court has accepted. It should be noted here that our previous episode focused on Huang Youlong's track, specifically his cousin She Zhijiang and the compounds in Myanmar, and we have seen no evidence whatsoever connecting Zhao Wei herself to the telecom fraud compounds. Zhao Jian is Zhao Wei's older brother, seven years her senior. In his early years, he worked at a foreign trade company in Wuhu, and later became a shareholder in a film and television company. Wuhu Dongrunfa, an investment company owned by Zhao Wei, lists Zhao Jian as its legal representative with a 10% stake, while Zhao Wei holds 90%. Over the past few years, it has basically been him speaking out on the front lines on behalf of Zhao Wei. Shortly after Zhao Jian spoke out, at the end of July 2025, the People's Court of Dongcheng District in Beijing issued three consecutive rulings freezing Zhao Wei's equity in three companies: 9 million yuan in Wuhu Dongrunfa, 1.9 million yuan in Tibet Longwei, and 5 million yuan in Hb Entertainment, totaling 15.9 million yuan, frozen for 3 years. The basis was still the 1.8 billion yuan guarantee made for Huang Li's company back in 2017. This is already the third round of freezing for the same matter. She may publicly state that she has nothing to do with Huang Youlong, but the guarantee she signed was signed during their marriage, and legally she cannot shake it off.
At the end of 2025, Zhao Wei made her boldest attempt yet. She and Huang Youlong had purchased several wineries in Bordeaux, France, years ago, one of which was named Monlot, and this winery had opened a red wine livestreaming room in China. In mid-December, Zhao Wei began connecting to the livestreaming room via audio only. The female host said the fans were as happy as if it were Chinese New Year just hearing her voice. At 2:00 AM on December 31, Zhao Wei herself appeared on camera in the livestreaming room, and then I watched the host... [text garbled]... the livestreaming room and the female host interacting with you, she was the long-absent Zhao Wei. In 2011... she wore exquisite makeup, was dressed very decently, chatted about red wine while sitting next to the female host, hugged her, and kissed her on the cheek. The chat screen was flooded with messages saying 'Little Swallow is back,' gifts poured in one after another, and sales climbed. About 10 minutes later, the screen suddenly went black. When the image returned, Zhao Wei was no longer in the frame; only the female host remained, telling the camera it was a technical glitch. Subsequently, this livestreaming room was banned, and the replay could not be found. Afterward, Zhao Wei left a voice message in a fan group. Her voice was a bit hoarse, and she said she couldn't livestream like that again. She also specifically explained that she hadn't been drunk that night, just a bit emotional. Shortly after, she reposted a post from her brother, Zhao Jian, stating that the lawsuit against those spreading rumors had been going through the legal process, but the acceptance process was long and couldn't yield immediate results. This was the first time she had publicly addressed the rumors herself before the livestream was cut off. Nineteen days later, Xinhua News Agency published a commentary. On January 19, 2026, Xinhua News Agency issued a commentary from Wuhan titled 'Let Disgraced Artists Who Violate Rules to Make a Comeback Have No Market and No Traffic.' The article did not name anyone, but among the methods listed for disgraced artists to make a comeback in violation of rules, it included changing names and surnames to sell goods in livestreaming rooms. It demanded that platforms not 'pretend to be asleep' and should promptly discover and remove content related to disgraced artists. After this article was published, Zhao Wei's path to a comeback via livestreaming was blocked.
On the evening of March 2, Zhao Wei posted several photos on Weibo, including one of her side profile with her mask pulled down. She wrote a sentence: 'Everything will pass, let it be.' On March 9, the 9 million yuan equity she held in Wuhu Dongrunfa was hit with a new freezing order by the Beijing Dongcheng District People's Court, frozen from March 9, 2026, to March 8, 2029. A few days later was her 50th birthday. On March 16, a film announced its release date. This film was the second directorial work Zhao Wei shot in 2016, originally titled 'No Other Love.' Just as the film wrapped, the lead actor, Leon Dai, was boycotted for being accused of supporting Taiwan independence, and the crew had to replace him with Geng Le for reshoots. In 2021, Zhao Wei was banned, and this film was indefinitely shelved in a warehouse. Ten years later, it was renamed 'Honey's Needle' and released nationwide on March 28. On the poster, the director column listed the producer, Yuan Mei; Zhao Wei's name was gone. During the days the film was released, Zhao Wei quietly attended a screening for friends and family. She sat in a corner wearing a baseball cap. After the screening, she stood up, took off her cap, bowed to everyone, and said thank you. On April 30, Chen Kun and Huang Xiaoming simultaneously posted a group photo on Weibo for the 30th anniversary of the enrollment of the 1996 acting class of the Beijing Film Academy. Their class teacher, Cui Xinqin, sat in the middle, and Zhao Wei sat next to her, wearing a black commemorative T-shirt, without makeup. Regarding Huang Youlong, on June 30, 2026, the Hong Kong High Court issued a first-instance judgment on the old case of Cai Yifeng pursuing debts from him, rejecting all of Cai Yifeng's requests. This case was discussed in a previous episode. During the trial, his lawyer said that Huang Youlong was in France with heart problems and could not take long-haul flights. At the end of September, a video went viral on Twitter, titled 'The Phone Recording of Jack Ma Persuading Huang Youlong to Return to China.' Over 100,000 people watched it. The video had a line of text on the screen: 'Restored according to the documents of the Bordeaux Court of Appeal in France. If you don't come back now, he will definitely finish you off.' The audio was dubbed based on court transcripts, not the original recording.
On October 20, Vicki Zhao arrived in Singapore. She came this time to support the Australia-born hairstylist kimrobinson; the two have known each other for nearly 30 years. In April 2010, Vicki Zhao gave birth to her daughter in Singapore, and even while still doing her postpartum confinement, she went to attend the opening of his art exhibition. This time, kimrobinson held a hair show called Golden Age at Ngee Ann City on Orchard Road, and Vicki Zhao flew over specially. Many fans came to the scene, some flying specifically from China and Thailand, and some continuously shouting, "Vicki Zhao, Singapore loves you." She sat in the same row as the Singaporean actor Li Nanxing; in 2019, Li Nanxing signed with her agency in China and acted in a web series she produced. When a reporter asked her what the Golden Age means to her, she said... wait, now right now, right? The past of an actor no longer exists. For her, she has not made a comeback yet, so she just cherishes the present moment, because if you acknowledge the excellence of the past and then look forward to the beauty of the future, where is the present? The present would have been missed in vain, so she thinks the domestic scene is just right now, perhaps. She said she is currently writing a script and trying out AI-generated film and television works with friends, triggered by her discovery that her mother in her 70s was deeply engrossed in AI-generated short dramas on her phone. She is not a stranger in Singapore; she told the Singaporean media that she had lived in Singapore for a few years in the past and still comes often. On her last trip, she even brought several friends from China to eat traditional bak kut teh and chicken rice. She said that in recent years she has learned to slow down, learned to be alone, learned to cook, and gone traveling. She has been to Lishui in Zhejiang, Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and also to Nepal. Both Nepal and Singapore are outside China, so the rumors that have circulated for five years about Vicki Zhao being placed under exit control can now come to an end. We checked public reports and available court information, and found no record of her being restricted from leaving the country. According to Chinese law, courts can indeed restrict persons subject to enforcement who fail to fulfill judgments from leaving the country, and those listed as dishonest judgment debtors are also restricted from taking planes. However, Vicki Zhao has been taking planes in recent years, going to many places inside and outside the country. She told reporters that ninety-nine percent of outside rumors are false. In 2021, among the conditions offered by Wei Fujiejie on the phone to Huang Youlong, one was freedom of entry and exit. Huang Youlong did not return, but Vicki Zhao stayed behind. Five years later, Vicki Zhao can indeed enter and exit freely; she can go to Nepal, come to Singapore, stand in the crowd at a hair show, and accept interviews. What she cannot do is reappear on domestic screens. When reporters asked her if she misses acting, she said people can watch reruns, but most of the shows she starred in are still not available on domestic platforms.
Vicki Zhao is not the first person like this. In 2018, Fan Bingbing was investigated for Yin-Yang contracts. According to Economic Observer reports at the time, both she and her younger brother Fan Chengcheng had been placed under exit control. Exit-entry officials said that restricting the departure of persons involved in cases under investigation and their relatives for a period of time is standard practice. Later, Fan Bingbing was permitted to leave the country; she filmed in South Korea, made guest appearances in Thailand, and won the Best Actress award at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards in 2025 for a Malaysian film, while mainland Chinese mainstream media did not report a single word. Zhang Zhehan is an artist from Vicki Zhao's own company and was banned in the same month as her. After 2023, he held concerts in Bangkok, Singapore, and Seoul, and held a fan meeting in Kuala Lumpur in May 2026. On the stage in Seoul, he said he is a native-born Chinese person who deeply loves his motherland. All three of them walked the same path: they can move around, make money, and take the stage abroad, but they cannot be seen within the country. Returning to that photo at the beginning, many people asked why Vicki Zhao has aged so much in these five years, and what on earth she experienced during this time? Vicki Zhao did not speak out, and we will not guess. What we can see is the weight pressed upon her over these five years: that spring when her husband received persuasion-to-surrender phone calls in a detention center in France, the special investigation team chatting with her, equity frozen round after round until 2029, a public statement of severance, a live-streaming room cut off after just 10 minutes on air, and a film with her name scrubbed from the credits. Regarding these five years in Singapore, she only said that ninety-nine percent of outside rumors are false, and she did not say what the remaining one percent was. Alright, today we will chat up to here.
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