K-pop star Lay Zhang is backing China

Lay Zhang is a member of Exo, a pop-up K-pop band with members from both South Korea and China.

On the big Chinese social media platform Weibo, Zhang has said about the protests in Hong Kong. That by posting a picture of the Chinese flag and writing that he "is one of the $ 1.4 billion protectors of the Chinese flag," writes Time magazine.

Recently, at least eight Chinese K-pop stars, as well as one from Taiwan and one from Hong Kong, have publicly commented on mainland China in connection with the protests in Hong Kong.

While the views on Lay Zhang's statement are falling apart among his fans, some have interpreted both his - and other stars' support for China - as signs of celebrities and corporate fears of falling outside the giant Chinese market.

Last week, US-Chinese actor Liu Yifei, who starred in Disney's upcoming feature film Mulan, expressed his support for Hong Kong police.

In her Weibo account, where she has over 65 million followers, she wrote “I support the Hong Kong police. You can attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong ”. Afterwards, the hashtag #BoycottMulan emerged in social media asking people to boycott the movie because of her statement.