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Chinese authorities ban Xi's lookalike for 'violating leader's looks'

WION Web Team
BeijingUpdated: Jul 03, 2020, 03:51 PM IST
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File Photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping Photograph:(Reuters)

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Kequin's resemblance to Jinping is considered "sensitive" by Chinese authorities. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping's lookalike has been banned from social media for "violating the leader's looks".

Liu Kequin, an opera singer in Berlin had an account on a Chinese social media app called Douyin since 2019. The app is similar to Tik Tok. 

He loved the attention which people used to lavish on his baritone. His square face, short black hair made him resemble Xi Jinping.

But due to the growing authoritarianism in China, his name has been censored online and his account was banned for "violating the leader's looks".

Kequin's resemblance to Jinping is considered "sensitive" by Chinese authorities. 

His photographs and instructional videos, in which he is merely sitting at home in a sweatshirt and offering energetic tutorials on singing, have been censored because of the same reason. 

When 63-year-old Kequin, tried to make another account on the same application, it was censored yet again because his images looked like the official portraits of the Chinese leader. 

However, he is not the only doppelganger of Jingping. An unnamed food vendor who became an internet sensation in December last year also resembles the Chinese leader a lot.

There have been accusations that Chinese authorities have been overly-critical of Jinping's image after the country censored memes of the Chinese president