Sima Nan

Sima was born son of a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, in Heilongjiang province, although Shandong is considered his ancestral home. He graduated from Heilongjiang College of Business at the end of 1981, after which he was assigned to work for the central government in Beijing. He had worked a variety of jobs since, notably as a journalist and television producer. He is a member of the CCP since 1977.{{cite web|url=https://www.thechinastory.org/key-intellectual/sima-nan-%E5%8F%B8%E9%A9%AC%E5%8D%97/|title=Sima Nan (司马南)|website=The China Story|access-date=2024-10-25}}

• {{cite book |script-title=zh:神功内幕 |trans-title=Inside Story of Qigong |language=zh}}
• {{cite book |script-title=zh:太乙宫黑幕 |trans-title=Inside Story of the Taiyi Palace |year=1998 |publisher=China Society Press |location=Beijing |isbn=9787801460295 |language=zh}}
• {{cite book |script-title=zh:我是司马南 |trans-title=I'm Sima Nan |year=2002 |publisher=China Times Economic Publishing House |location=Beijing |isbn=9787801693013 |language=zh}}
• {{cite book |script-title=zh:民主胡同40条 |trans-title=40 Democratic Hutongs |year=2011 |publisher=Economic Science Press |location=Beijing |isbn=9787514101522 |language=zh}}

{{New Left in China|People}}

The Wall Street Journal describes Sima as "one of China's most divisive advocates of neo-Maoist ideology", whereas Reuters characterized him as "Communist Party defender". Sima has been described as a Chinese New Left,{{cite news |last1=Demick |first1=Barbara |title=China scandal unlikely to upend Communist Party's apple cart |url=https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2012-apr-11-la-fg-china-bo-scandal-20120412-story.html |access-date=14 November 2022 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=11 April 2012 |archive-date=14 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221114205555/https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2012-apr-11-la-fg-china-bo-scandal-20120412-story.html |url-status=live }} and is among the best-known advocates of ousted political leader Bo Xilai's "Chongqing Model". Online, Chinese netizens consider him an "anti-America warrior", as a typical entry on Sima's microblog reads: "America is the enemy of all the people in the world... It’s like a giant tumor. Its military bases are all around the world. All wars after World War II were instigated, engineered or started by America...”

In 2011, Sima was invited by the North Korean government to attend the 100th Anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth. After viewing the military parade, Sima enthused: " Not only should North Koreans love Kim Jong Un, people from every nation should love their leaders."{{cite news |title= |script-title=zh:司马南：各国都要学习朝鲜 热爱他们的领袖 |url=http://v.ifeng.com/history/renwujingdian/201206/befa3461-011e-4ae8-a825-0c8e5593d711.shtml |accessdate=23 December 2013 |newspaper=Phoenix Television |archive-date=13 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204200/https://v.ifeng.com/history/renwujingdian/201206/befa3461-011e-4ae8-a825-0c8e5593d711.shtml |url-status=live }}

Bo's top lieutenant, Wang Lijun, was an admirer of Sima. In June 2011, Wang invited Sima to give a lecture on "ideological media voice" to 1800 policemen in Chongqing. During their meeting, Wang claimed he read Sima's writings "everyday".{{cite news|title=王立军爱读司马南 力挺孔庆东|url=http://news.hexun.com/2012-12-18/149183562.html|accessdate=23 December 2013|newspaper=hexun.com|archive-date=24 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224102631/http://news.hexun.com/2012-12-18/149183562.html|url-status=live}}

During the Xi Jinping Administration, Sima's radical views have become part of the mainstream of Chinese politics.{{cite news |date=13 April 2012 |title= |script-title=zh:薄熙来的下台和左派的困惑和苦恼 |url=https://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20120413-%E8%96%84%E7%86%99%E6%9D%A5%E7%9A%84%E4%B8%8B%E5%8F%B0%E5%92%8C%E5%B7%A6%E6%B4%BE%E7%9A%84%E5%9B%B0%E6%83%91%E5%92%8C%E8%8B%A6%E6%81%BC |access-date=3 July 2022 |work=Radio France Internationale |language=zh}}{{cite news |date=20 October 2011 |title= |script-title=zh:“左派旗手”司马南遇中国大学生犀利提问 |url=https://www.voachinese.com/a/article-20111120-sima-nan-embattled-134203033/790807.html |access-date=3 July 2022 |work=Voice of America |language=zh |archive-date=13 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204040/https://www.voachinese.com/a/article-20111120-sima-nan-embattled-134203033/790807.html |url-status=live }}

Known for espousing antisemitic tropes,{{Cite web |date=May 11, 2024 |title=Chinese Journalist Sima Nan: Israel Has Achieved What Hitler Couldn't; Jewish Money Controls The American Soul; Israeli Ambassador To The U.N. Gilad Erdan's Level Of Madness Is Greater Than Hitler's |url=https://www.memri.org/tv/chinese-journalist-sima-nan-israel-achieved-what-hitler-could-not-jewish-money-controls-america-gilad-erdan |access-date=2024-09-13 |website=Middle East Media Research Institute |language=en |archive-date=13 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204105/https://www.memri.org/tv/chinese-journalist-sima-nan-israel-achieved-what-hitler-could-not-jewish-money-controls-america-gilad-erdan |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Yan |first=Sophia |date=2023-10-21 |title=Why a wave of anti-Semitism is sweeping across China |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/21/anti-semitism-in-china-israel-hamas-conflict/ |access-date=2024-09-13 |work=The Daily Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021134615/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/21/anti-semitism-in-china-israel-hamas-conflict/ |url-status=live }} Sima's Weibo channel spread the notion that Jews colluded with the Empire of Japan to establish a Jewish homeland in mainland China during the Second Sino-Japanese War in what has been termed the Fugu Plan.{{Cite news |last=Haime |first=Jordyn |date=5 August 2022 |title=This American rabbi is fighting antisemitism in China with online videos |url=https://jweekly.com/2022/08/05/jewish-stereotypes-abound-in-china-a-u-s-rabbi-is-using-online-videos-to-fight-them/ |accessdate=9 December 2022 |work=J. The Jewish News of Northern California |quote=The Fugu Plan never came to fruition, but the antisemitic and ultranationalist political blogger Yu Li (who blogs under the name Sima Nan) has shared the story with his nearly 3 million followers. In a 20-minute-long antisemitic rant, he says the Fugu Plan is evidence that the Jews colluded with the Japanese to establish a Jewish homeland on Chinese territory — a conspiracy that fits a nationalist narrative that China is constantly under attack by foreign powers. |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209011928/https://jweekly.com/2022/08/05/jewish-stereotypes-abound-in-china-a-u-s-rabbi-is-using-online-videos-to-fight-them/ |url-status=live }}

In August 2022, he admitted to buying a house in California. This made him a target of widespread ridicule, with commentators saying "being anti-American is work, living in America is life" ({{zh|s=反美是工作、留美是生活|labels=no}}).{{Cite web |title="反美是工作、留美是生活" 司马南认了美国买房 |url=https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/hcm-08172022073219.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005114447/https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/hcm-08172022073219.html |archive-date=5 October 2022 |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=Radio Free Asia |publisher= |language=zh-cn}} For unknown reasons, he was blocked in Chinese social media in August 2022. His accounts were later reinstated on 27 August.{{Cite web |date=2022-08-23 |title=Nationalistic blogger Sima Nan banned from Chinese social media |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3189923/nationalistic-blogger-sima-nan-banned-chinese-social-media |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823215258/https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3189923/nationalistic-blogger-sima-nan-banned-chinese-social-media |archive-date=23 August 2022 |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}

On 4 July 2023, he attended the American Independence Day dinner hosted by the US Embassy in China where also met with US Ambassador to China R. Nicholas Burns. Sima's attendance of the dinner was mocked by Chinese social media users who accused him of being hypocritical, as the day before the event he had criticized the US proposal to provide Ukraine with cluster bombs during the Russian invasion as "an act against humanity."{{cite web |last=Gan |first=Nectar |date=2023-07-07 |title='Anti-American' Chinese pundit faces backlash for attending Independence Day party at US Embassy in Beijing |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/06/china/china-simanan-us-embassy-independence-day-intl-hnk/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712110659/https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/06/china/china-simanan-us-embassy-independence-day-intl-hnk/index.html |archive-date=12 July 2023 |access-date=July 12, 2023 |website=CNN}}

On 9 November 2024, South China Morning Post reported that Sima was banned from Chinese social media platforms for a year.{{cite news |last1=Zheng |first1=William |title=Exclusive {{!}} Chinese internet censors ban anti-West firebrand Sima Nan for a year |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3285839/chinese-internet-censors-ban-anti-west-firebrand-sima-nan-year |access-date=25 April 2025 |work=South China Morning Post |date=9 November 2024 |language=en}} In March 2025, the Chinese State Taxation Administration fined him {{Currency|9.27 million|CNY}} for tax evasion.{{cite news |title=Beijing tax bureau penalizes Sima Nan for tax evasion |url=https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202503/21/WS67dd1aaca310c240449dc27f.html |access-date=25 April 2025 |work=China Daily |date=2025-03-21}}

In 2008, Sima waged an Internet war against Chinese commentators and intellectuals he says have hijacked this year's national dramas to undermine CCP rule and patriotic values. He targeted two of the nation's most widely read and combative newspapers, Southern Weekend and Southern Metropolis Daily, accusing them of promoting "Westernization" and liberal beliefs. He also accused the paper of writing favorably of Amnesty International and other groups critical of the Beijing Olympics and China's authoritarian government.

In September 2008, following the Beijing Olympics, Sima was interviewed by the BBC, and defended Chinese censorship regulations and the media firewall on Falun Gong in mainland China.{{cite web |title= |script-title=zh:司马南与BBC辩论"普世价值" (Sima Nan debates with the BBC on "Universal Values") |url=http://gb.cri.cn/18824/2008/09/24/2945s2256933.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090428110057/http://gb.cri.cn/18824/2008/09/24/2945s2256933.htm |archive-date=28 April 2009 |access-date=6 November 2009 |website=China Radio International |publisher=}} Sima said that the group disseminates material that is blatantly "anti-China" in nature and that the Chinese public has long grown irritated with "Falun Gong rhetoric." In another interview with The Daily Telegraph, Sima says that China is not ready for personal freedom, nor suited to one man, one vote. Liberals, he claims, want to do away with "Chineseness" and turn the country into a pale imitation of the West.{{cite news |last=Spencer |first=Richard |date=1 August 2008 |title=Beijing Olympics: China casts off a century of shame |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/2486937/Beijing-Olympics-China-casts-off-a-century-of-shame.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240904003126/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/2486937/Beijing-Olympics-China-casts-off-a-century-of-shame.html |archive-date=4 September 2024 |accessdate=23 December 2013 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London}} After Charter 08 came out, Sima wrote on his blog that the charter was a dangerous attempt to promote a Chinese "color revolution", referring to pro-democracy movements in Ukraine and Georgia.{{cite news |date=17 December 2008 |title=Beijing Clamps Down After Call for Democracy |url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1867029,00.html |accessdate=23 December 2013 |newspaper=Time |archive-date=13 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204201/https://time.com/archive/6945208/beijing-clamps-down-after-call-for-democracy/ |url-status=live }}

In April 2011, days after Ai Weiwei was arrested by the Chinese government, Sima attended a web show denouncing him.{{cite web|script-title=zh:围观艾未未（二）：艾未未们若得逞，中国会更糟|url=http://tv.m4.cn/parlor/2011-04/1096920.shtml|publisher=April Media|accessdate=23 December 2013|archive-date=13 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204111/http://tv.m4.cn/parlor/2011-04/1096920.shtml|url-status=live}} Sima claimed that Ai's fame was due to his anti-China stance, and Ai received foreign funding to subvert China. Sima warned that if "Ai had his way, China will be worse". Upon learning Sima's accusations, Ai's mother challenged Sima to show evidence backing his claims.{{cite news |title= |script-title=zh:司马南抨击艾未未 艾母要求拿出证据 |url=http://www.dw.de/%E5%8F%B8%E9%A9%AC%E5%8D%97%E6%8A%A8%E5%87%BB%E8%89%BE%E6%9C%AA%E6%9C%AA-%E8%89%BE%E6%AF%8D%E8%A6%81%E6%B1%82%E6%8B%BF%E5%87%BA%E8%AF%81%E6%8D%AE/a-14980013-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240904003706/https://www.dw.com/zh/%E5%8F%B8%E9%A9%AC%E5%8D%97%E6%8A%A8%E5%87%BB%E8%89%BE%E6%9C%AA%E6%9C%AA-%E8%89%BE%E6%AF%8D%E8%A6%81%E6%B1%82%E6%8B%BF%E5%87%BA%E8%AF%81%E6%8D%AE/a-14980013 |archive-date=4 September 2024 |accessdate=23 December 2013 |newspaper=Deutsche Welle}}

On 20 January 2012, Sima boarded a plane to Washington, DC, United States. At some point after arriving at Dulles International Airport, Sima leaned over the handrail of an escalator and got his head stuck between the rail and an approaching section of wall.{{cite news |last=Kennedy |first=John |title=China: 'Anti-American Warrior' Gets Head Stuck in DC Airport Escalator |url=http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/01/26/china-anti-american-warrior-gets-head-stuck-in-dc-airport-escalator/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204045/https://globalvoices.org/2012/01/26/china-anti-american-warrior-gets-head-stuck-in-dc-airport-escalator/ |archive-date=13 September 2024 |accessdate=22 December 2013 |newspaper=Global Voices}}{{cite news|title=Anti-U.S. media figure gets head stuck in escalator at D.C. airport|url=http://shanghaiist.com/2012/01/27/anti-us_media_figure_gets_head_stuc.php|accessdate=22 December 2013|newspaper=Shanghaiist|archive-date=13 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204045/https://shanghaiist.com/|url-status=live}} He was rushed to hospital and received prompt treatment. The fact that a pundit who made a career out of bashing the United States quietly traveled there on the eve of Chinese New Year invited suspicions of hypocrisy and a deluge of ridicule on Chinese social networking sites. It was rumored Sima was in the U.S. to visit his wife and child living there, to which Sima did not deny, but emphasized privacy.{{cite news |title=Sima Nan, Kong Qingdong and Them |url=http://www.time-weekly.com/story/2012-03-29/123090.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204049/https://www.time-weekly.com/404 |archive-date=13 September 2024 |accessdate=22 December 2013 |newspaper=The Time Weekly}}

In October 2012, when giving a lecture at Hainan University, Sima Nan had a shoe thrown at him by a student.{{cite news |title=Student Gives Prominent Neo-Maoist the Shoe Treatment |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/10/08/student-gives-neo-maoist-standard-bearer-the-shoe-treatment/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220140054/http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/10/08/student-gives-neo-maoist-standard-bearer-the-shoe-treatment/ |archive-date=20 December 2013 |accessdate=20 December 2013 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal}} The episode occurred during the Q & A period. Arguing that Sima's Maoist views were a threat to freedom, the student quoted Socrates before hurling his sneaker to Sima, to the cheers of a packed auditorium.

Sima studied qigong while at college. His biography published in the Skeptical Inquirer states that he was influenced by the book Human Body Science ({{zh|c=人体科学}}) by China's leading physicist Qian Xuesen.{{cite journal |url=http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/sima_nan_fighting_qigong_pseudoscience_in_china |title=Sima Nan: Fighting Qigong Pseudoscience in China |first=Donald |last=Mainfort |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=9 |date=March 1999 |issue=1 |access-date=21 October 2009 |archive-date=20 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720072147/http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/sima_nan_fighting_qigong_pseudoscience_in_china |url-status=live }} As a result, he became involved in the Chinese Human Body Science Association, through which he had an opportunity to witness demonstrations of the prominent masters of the time, for whom he used to run errands. Sima says this included transferring title of property the masters received from grateful followers. By 1990, he says he became disillusioned with the deception practiced by the qigong masters he had come into contact with, and found that the Qigong Science Research Association had little to do with serious research but was in fact interested in gaining influence and financial reward. Later, however, he was denounced as a "traitor" and expelled from the Human Body Science Association.

Sima says that the government had been harassing him until 1999, when the official policy on qigong underwent a reversal.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/whom-gong-tolls/ |title=For Whom the Gong Tolls |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Hitchens |last=Hitchens |date=20 November 2000 |magazine=The Nation |accessdate=21 October 2009 |archive-date=13 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913204545/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/whom-gong-tolls/ |url-status=live }} Sima says he is motivated only by the satisfaction of unmasking cheats who he says prey on uneducated Chinese. His Skeptics biography alleged that, during the golden decade of qigong, the qigong network had sought to influence the highest level of the country's leadership. Governmental departments set up qigong research and development units and invested large sums of money for that purpose; people of all socioeconomic levels were deceived, in his view.

According to The Wall Street Journal's Ian Johnson, Sima was an obscure debunker of charlatans who shot to stardom following the state's 1999 crackdown on Falun Gong. In the six weeks since the CCP banned the spiritual practice, Mr. Sima became a hot commodity, "jetting around the country at the behest of party bosses who hope the self-styled cultbuster can root out believers". He was even given a national "hero of atheism" award.{{cite news |title=Who Ya Gonna Call? In China, Debunkers Hire a Cultbuster |work=The Wall Street Journal |first=Ian |last=Johnson |date=30 August 1999 }}

Demand for Sima's consulting services increased following the ban of Falun Gong; He traveled around the country to give lectures. Sima said that although he supported the government's ban on Falun Gong, he was ambivalent about the government's vitriolic campaign against the practice and the hundreds of arrests.{{cite news |last=Rosenthal |first=Elisabeth |author-link=Elisabeth Rosenthal |date=20 November 1999 |title=A Star Turn for China's Cult Buster |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/20/world/a-star-turn-for-china-s-cult-buster.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=4 September 2024 |archive-date=19 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919125715/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/20/world/a-star-turn-for-china-s-cult-buster.html |url-status=live }} In 2000, The Globe and Mail reported that Sima had been asked by the Canadian government to assist them in combating illegal immigration from China: faced with many boat people arriving on Canada's west coast from China who claim persecution as members of Falun Gong in order to gain refugee status, the Canadians are hoping for help in assessing the applications.{{cite news |title=Beijing Cult Buster Aids Canadian Embassy: Communist Party member to help identify fake falun gong members among refugee claimants |first= Miro |last=Cernetig |work=The Globe and Mail |date=31 January 2000}}

Sima referred to ufologists as "romantics", saying that those who alleged to have seen UFOs or have had extraterrestrial encounters, all lack hard evidence to prove their claims via objective and scientific methods.{{cite news |date=12 December 2003 |title=Focus: Ufology in mysticism |url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/12/content_289788.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616110339/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/12/content_289788.htm |archive-date=16 June 2009 |access-date=11 November 2009 |work=China Daily}}

Sima Nan is a friend of Fang Zhouzi. In 2006, Sima Nan, He Zuoxiu, Yuan Zhong and Guo Zhengyi established "Anti-Fraud Trust", soliciting donations from the public. The express purpose of the trust was to fund Fang Zhouzi's activities.{{cite news |title= |script-title=zh:何祚庥筹备科技打假基金 主要资助方舟子 |url=http://tech.sina.com.cn/d/2006-11-06/07301221159.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201015002645/http://tech.sina.com.cn/d/2006-11-06/07301221159.shtml |archive-date=15 October 2020 |accessdate=23 December 2013 |newspaper=Beijing Morning News}}

• Kong Qingdong

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/sphereNews/idUSPEK8033320080729?sp=true |title=China Party pundit spies battle outside Games arena |first=Chris |last=Buckley |author2=Rhoads, Brian |author3=Norton, Jerry |work=Reuters|date=29 July 2008 }}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.xys.org/xys/ebooks/others/science/misc/wenchuan357.txt |title=网络上"震"出了一个司马南 (The Earthquake, The Internet and Sima Nan) |author=Ma Guochuan ({{zh|s=马国川|labels=no}}) (Economic Observer) vols. 45,46 |work=xys.org |date=13 June 2008 |language=zh}} [http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080618_1.htm translation]

• [http://blog.sina.com.cn/simanan Sima Nan's official blog] {{in lang|zh}}
• [http://www.weibo.com/simanan Sima Nan's official Weibo (a Twitter-like service)] {{in lang|zh}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnUprfZhHRzfcLHdLS-f6aw Sima Nan's official Youtube channel] {{in lang|zh}}
• [http://v.qq.com/page/a/v/h/a0145dhqbvh.html?mc_cid=46970ee508&mc_eid=16c3352fe3 "Sima Nan, where are you?" 歌曲: 司马南，你在哪里？song on V.QQ.com, accessed 26 January 2015]

{{Chinese New Left}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sima, Nan}}

Category:20th-century Chinese journalists

Category:Skeptics

Category:1956 births

Category:Living people

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Category:20th-century atheists

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Category:Anti-American sentiment in China

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