26 Facts About Sima Nan

Yu Li, better known by his pen name Sima Nan, is a Chinese television pundit, social commentator, and journalist.

Sima Nan graduated from Heilongjiang College of Business at the end of 1981, after which he was assigned to work for the central government in Beijing.

Sima Nan had worked a variety of jobs since, notably as a journalist and television producer.

Sima Nan has been described as a Chinese New Left, and is among the best-known advocates of ousted political leader Bo Xilai's "Chongqing Model".

In 2011, Sima Nan was invited by the North Korean government to attend the 100th Anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth.

In June 2011, Wang invited Sima Nan to give a lecture on "ideological media voice" to 1800 policemen in Chongqing.

On 9 November 2024, South China Morning Post reported that Sima Nan was banned from Chinese social media platforms for a year.

In 2008, Sima Nan 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.

Sima Nan 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.

Sima Nan 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 Nan was interviewed by the BBC, and defended Chinese censorship regulations and the media firewall on Falun Gong in mainland China.

Sima Nan claimed that Ai's fame was due to his anti-China stance, and Ai received foreign funding to subvert China.

Sima Nan warned that if "Ai had his way, China will be worse".

On 20 January 2012, Sima Nan boarded a plane to Washington, DC, United States.

At some point after arriving at Dulles International Airport, Sima Nan leaned over the handrail of an escalator and got his head stuck between the rail and an approaching section of wall.

Sima Nan was rushed to hospital and received prompt treatment.

In October 2012, when giving a lecture at Hainan University, Sima Nan had a shoe thrown at him by a student.

Sima Nan's biography published in the Skeptical Inquirer states that he was influenced by the book Human Body Science by China's leading physicist Qian Xuesen.

Sima Nan says this included transferring title of property the masters received from grateful followers.

Sima Nan says that the government had been harassing him until 1999, when the official policy on qigong underwent a reversal.

Sima Nan says he is motivated only by the satisfaction of unmasking cheats who he says prey on uneducated Chinese.

Sima Nan was even given a national "hero of atheism" award.

Demand for Sima Nan's consulting services increased following the ban of Falun Gong; He traveled around the country to give lectures.

Sima Nan 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.

In 2000, The Globe and Mail reported that Sima Nan 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.

Sima Nan 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.