Former Chinese football international Hao Haidong appeared today in a video criticizing China’s current leadership, allying himself with a Chinese billionaire based in the United States and who calls for the fall of the Communist Party.
Hao appears in a video broadcast online, swearing allegiance to the “Federal State of New China”, an alleged alternative to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), established by billionaire Guo Wengui, who lives in exile in New York.
The ex-footballer appears to read an 18-point manifesto, in which he demands the end of the current power structure and classifies the CCP as a “terrorist organization”, which “runs over democracy”, violates the rule of law and makes contracts that do not want to keep.
The former international also accused Beijing of launching a “biological war” against the world with the covid-19 pandemic.
The video is released on the 31st anniversary since the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement was crushed, on the night of June 3 to 4, 1989, when army tanks were dispatched to end seven weeks of protests, and at a time when Beijing is strengthening political control over the semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong.
The 50-year-old was a striker for the Chinese national team and played for the football clubs Bayi and Dalian Shide, and also played for the English club Sheffield United, but retired more than a decade ago.
Hao was one of the stars of the squad that held China’s only participation in a football World Cup in 2002, in which the Chinese team lost the three group games and did not score a goal.
Hao still holds the national goal record for the national team, with 41 accurate shots in more than 100 games for China, and is also the greatest scorer of all time in the Chinese league, with 96 goals.
