Xu Xiaodong has Weibo account wiped after Hong Kong protest comments; meets human rights lawyer Chen Qiushi

• Chinese MMA fighter’s microblog is deleted for the eighth time – ‘the ninth is coming!’ he says
• Xu tweets picture with Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Qiushi, who had been feared missing after returning from Hong Kong protests

Xu Xiaodong has paid another price for speaking out in support of Hong Kong people during the ongoing protests " this time on social media.

Earlier this week, the Chinese MMA fighter was visited at his Beijing home by authorities who questioned his views on the demonstrations after a Twitter post.

Now the fighting "Mad Dog" has had his account on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo cancelled.

It is the eighth time Xu has been wiped from Weibo. He started the account earlier this year, and had more than 12,000 followers before it was shut down.

"Let's continue! The ninth time is coming!" Xu wrote on Twitter, where he also posted a video to his 56,000 followers.

"Now is Aug 23, 2019 and just half an hour after my live broadcast, I found out my eighth Weibo was closed," he said in the video.

Xu Xiaodong must publicly apologise for insulting tai chi 'grandmaster'

"Now I know those people's tricks " whenever there is more than 10,000 fans, they will close it for no reason, despite no complaints."

Xu said he has set up a new Weibo account under the username "Winter MMA". "If you want to join, you can join but I'd rather you not as it will be closed again sooner or later," he said, jokingly.

"I am a Beijing citizen and I can represent Beijing as they have no right to say I can't. This is a fact," he added.

On Wednesday, Xu also posted a picture of himself with Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Qiushi. Chen visited Hong Kong last weekend to observe protests in the city and was feared missing after he cut his trip short because of pressure from authorities.

The 33-year-old had uploaded several video diaries and observations about the protests to Weibo, where he has 770,000 followers.

The diaries have been deleted from Weibo, but remain on YouTube.

But Chen indicated to the Post on Wednesday morning that he was safe, and appeared in the picture with Xu in Beijing on the same day.

Xu has become an unlikely hero for the Hong Kong protesters, taking a differing stance to the official mainland Chinese view on the city amid nationalist fury.

It is not Xu's first brush with mainland authorities, who have censored the fighter in his attempts to expose what he calls "fake kung fu".

One of Xu's fights against a tai chi "master" in Shanghai was broken up by police before it started. He has also had to wear face paint and use a demeaning alias " "winter melon" " to be allowed to have his fights live-streamed in China.

China's censorship of Xu Xiaodong for exposing fake kung fu is alarming

Earlier this year, Xu was ordered by the Chinese courts to make a public apology and pay damages, at a total cost of around 400,000 yuan, for calling tai chi "grandmaster" Chen Xiaowang a fraud.

Xu refused and his social credit score was lowered to D status, which meant he was not allowed to fly, or travel on high-speed trains or stay at star-rated hotels.

He eventually apologised and had the sanctions lifted, but has said he plans to move to Australia and naturalise as a citizen there so that he can countersue Chen.

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