Photo: VCG

China's table tennis legend Liu Guoliang has apologized for endorsing an investment app that reportedly scammed citizens of 23 billion yuan ($3.26 billion), which has caused heated discussions on Chinese social media.

Liu, who won the Grand Slam by obtaining the World Championship men's singles title in Eindhoven in 1999, and became Chinese Table Tennis Association president in December 2018, said during an interview on Sunday that after he learned about the problems with the endorsing an investment app that reportedly scammed citizens of 23 billion yuan ($3.26 billion) app, he felt "very anxious and sad" while claiming that he has since urged the platform to solve these problems as soon as possible. Liu was named World Table Tennis Council head at the end of June this year.

The hashtag "Liu Guoliang responds to the iQianJin issue" has so far gained more than 300 million reviews on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo. One netizen commented that they "personally support Liu and trust that he can handle the issue well." However, another comment said that it's "bad luck [for Liu] to face this problem, and celebrities should be cautious when they choose to endorse P2P (peer to peer fund-raising) products." Other netizens claimed that Liu has the responsibility to ensure he only promotes platforms and services that he has tested before, calling for his help to handle the iQianJin issue.

The investment app iQianJin approached Liu to be its spokesperson in May 2018, but cooperation stopped at the end of 2019, Liu said in the interview, noting that the app had all the relevant materials to prove its business activities were legal.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Liu has been overseas training his team for the first half of 2020, and apologized that he hadn't communicated with his fans and supporters about the issue in a timely manner, according to media reports.

Liu is not the only celebrity involved in the case. On July 2, Chinese television host Wang Han, best known for the show Day Day Up, apologized for not reporting the issues with the app developers in a timely manner, adding that he and his lawyers plan to actively follow up on this matter and communicate any further developments with the public.

In fact, advertising spokespersons must not recommend or certify unused products or services that they have not received based on current advertising law, Chang Yachun, a lawyer at Beijing Kangda Law Firm, told the Global Times on Monday, adding that spokespersons should take responsibility "if they know the products they endorse have problems before they begin endorsing them."

However, he noted that some spokespersons don't actually understand the businesses they endorse themselves. As such, their lawyers should judge and investigate products and services before they endorsed for them. The spokespersons "have the obligation" to understand the products and services they plan to endorse as they have to protect their public reputation, Chang noted.