Chinese table tennis star accused of using sex tapes to pay off gambling debt

In what’s shaping up to be one of this year’s biggest Chinese celebrity scandals, former Olympic athlete-turned-entertainer Zhāng Jìkē 张继科 has been dropped by several major brands after accusations emerged that he had shared intimate videos of his former girlfriend with a loan shark to delay paying off his gambling debt.

The fallout began earlier last week when rumors emerged on Chinese social media that the table tennis mega-star has been struggling with a gambling problem for years, and that one of his ex-girlfriends was blackmailed by a dodgy lender after Zhang leaked intimate footage of her as part of his repayment.

On Friday, award-winning investigative reporter journalist Lǐ Wēiáo 李微敖 wrote in a series of posts on Weibo that, based on “legal materials” he has seen or obtained over the years, he can confirm that Chinese actress Jǐng Tián 景甜 was the victim in Zhang’s million-dollar entanglement.

Li reported on an agreement allegedly between Zhang and his lender in which the former Olympic gold medalist appears to have taken out a cash loan of 5 million yuan ($726,000) with an interest of 24% per year, which is nearly four times the rate at regular banks for the same amount of money.

Zhang’s scandal, Li wrote on Weibo, “is more than just celebrity gossip. Rather, it’s a serious criminal case.” Describing Jing as “a complete victim,” Li urged Zhang to “come clean” about his behavior and respond to the allegations publicly.

In a separate post published on Li’s personal WeChat account on Sunday, the journalist, who previously worked at a string of established Chinese news outlets, including Caijing Magazine and the Southern Weekly, before joining the Economic Observer, writes that he heard about the ruthless lender and Zhang’s connection with him in 2020 when he was reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. He noted that although the loan shark was sentenced to seven years in prison in December 2020 for blackmailing Jing into repaying an accumulative debt of 22 million yuan for Zhang, it was never questioned in the court how the lender obtained the footage in question.

“Zhang appeared at the trial as a court witness. But interestingly, there hasn’t been a formal investigation into how the loan shark got his hands on the videos,” Li wrote, implying that Zhang was at fault. He also alleged that Zhang’s insurmountable debts stemmed from his gambling habits, which often required him to fly overseas since casinos are outlawed in mainland China.

Zhang’s representatives have denied the allegations. In a statement released on March 31, Zhang’s agency claimed that he “had no involvement in any debt disputes” and asked the public to stop spreading misinformation about him. In an interview with the Beijing Youth Daily, Zhang’s legal team vowed to take legal action against those who “infringed Zhang’s reputation.”

Over the weekend, the controversy surrounding Zhang dominated Chinese media, with the most popular hashtag on Weibo garnering upwards of 2.2 billion views.

Widely regarded as the one of the best Chinese table tennis players of all time, Zhang was an individual Olympic gold medalist in 2012 and silver medalist four years later. The 35-year-old athlete is also a two-time Olympic team champion and has been crowned world champion seven times.

Although Zhang never announced his retirement from the sport, he hasn’t entered any competitions since 2018. In recent years, Zhang has transitioned into a full-time celebrity in the entertainment industry, making frequent appearances in reality TV shows and shilling products on ecommerce livestreaming platforms. He has nearly 12.5 million followers on Weibo.

As of today, Anta Sports, a Chinese sportswear company that had worked with Zhang for more than a decade, has deleted all social media posts about him. On Anta’s official website, Zhang has been removed from its list of official brand ambassadors. Multiple other brands have followed suit, including major table tennis apparel and equipment supplier Butterfly, Chinese skincare company Inoherb, and Safeguard, an international manufacturer of personal hygiene products owned by Procter & Gamble.