People's Daily Takes Fan Zhendong's Side in the Fight Against Covert Filming of Athletes
Two days after the table tennis star posted against covert filming, People's Daily published a commentary declaring that stalking photographers do not act out of love, mapped the grey economy that monetises athletes' private itineraries, and cited the state plan to clean up fan-circle chaos in sport.
Two days after table tennis star Fan Zhendong drew a line against covert filming, China's official newspaper has drawn the same line beside him. On October 23, People's Daily published a commentary titled 'Secret Photography Is Not Love' (偷拍根本不是'爱')， arguing that whatever the photographer's intent, covert filming is 'an act that disrespects others and violates their privacy' — and, unusually, the state newspaper went past the sentiment to map the machinery behind it.
Fan, who moved to a German club this autumn after years of asking fans for boundary, and being branded 'a good person and a good player' at Düsseldorf, had posted on October 21 that regardless of who does it or why, being secretly photographed is not something anyone would choose to experience. It was his fourth such intervention since 2021: he has publicly opposed airport stalking and unofficial photo sales, asked that fan-circle culture not be dragged into competitive sport, and in 2024 was forced to speak out after his ID number was spread online and used to harass him.
What lifted the response beyond the usual celebrity grievance was People's Daily's willingness to describe the grey economy. Fans who buy covert footage, middlemen who sell athletes' private itineraries, group leaders who monetise fan mobilisation, and platform recommendation systems that reward the spread of such material — the paper described a profit chain in which 'individual fans' purchases become the pushers of a grey business,' with each side feeding the next. The piece also pointed to the '15th Five-Year Plan' for sports, which explicitly requires the rectification of fan-circle chaos in sport.
The timing is no coincidence. China's table tennis authorities banned abusive fans from arenas earlier this month, and the sport's governing bodies have spent two years trying to separate genuine support from stalking, after fans tracked players' flights, hotels and training venues. Fan's stance has been consistent: he does not reject admiration, only the kind that arrives through a hotel corridor camera.
The open question is enforcement. Fan asked for respect in 2021, 2022 and 2024, and the filming continued; the newspaper's intervention adds official weight, and the sports plan gives regulators a mandate. What it still lacks is a price for crossing the line — and until the grey business of selling private itineraries costs someone something, the corridor cameras will keep finding their way to the athletes' doors.