Image source: Visual China

BEIJING, May 17 (TMTPost) —— China's Talk Show Provider Xiao Guo Culture was fined 13.354 million yuan ($1.9 million) , with its illegal income of 1.325 million yuan（$189,333) being confiscated, because of regulatory violations, according to a notice issued by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism on Wednesday.

The regulator will further investigate the responsibility of the personnel involved and their performance brokers and performance venue operators for related violations of the law.

In addition, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism decided to indefinitely suspend all performance activities of the company in Beijing.

Recently, Li Houshi, a stand-up comedian of Xiao Guo Culture made an inappropriate expression in his performance, which seriously insulted the People's Liberation Army, according to the notice. As a result, the public security authorities started an investigation according to the law.

Li and Xiao Guo Culture issued a statement to apologize for the inappropriate speech on Monday afternoon. In the statement, Xiao Guo Culture said that the entertainer was seriously criticized on the day of the performance, and all his subsequent acting work was stopped indefinitely.

Xiao Guo Culture responded that it will take a series of measures for rectification. It would immediately terminate the labor contract and entertainer agency contract of the actor involved. The company's senior management team and the related business team would be given sanctions such as retaining their posts on probation and reducing salary respectively. The company would immediately carry out a comprehensive rectification and study of offline performance businesses all over the country. The impact of the cancellation of the performance on the audience who have purchased ticket refunds and other related matters would be properly and smoothly dealt with. The company said that it would humbly accept the audience's criticism and education.

Xiao Guo Culture will also sort out the weak links in management, and establish effective and pragmatic long-term mechanisms in order to ensure that the company has sufficient ability to control risks and assume due responsibilities in the industry. It will also set up a department independent of the performance businesses, and allocate full-time supervisory personnel to manage the whole process of performance as a gatekeeper in order to completely be away from content that violates laws and regulations, public order, and morality. The response to unexpected events would be speeded up to make timely and strict treatment of relevant responsible personnel who violate laws and regulations and internal rules. Mechanisms would also be established to ensure that the rules and regulations are put into practice. The company's management, all employees, and actors would receive related education and form a norm.

Previously, the artists of Xiao Guo Culture have been administratively punished for many times. Xiao Guo Culture’s co-founder Li Dan was fined a total of 870,000 yuan ($124,318) for illegal acts such as publishing illegal advertisements in his microblog that violate social good morals and degrade women's dignity in 2021. Com, a stand-up comedian, and artist of Xiao Guo Culture, was also detained for drug-related offences in 2020.