While the Red Cross is busy handling its overspending issues, Guo Meimei is still at the center of the public’s attention.
Wearing a hat and wrapping her designer hand bag in a plastic bag, Guo arrived in Beijing from Shenzhen at 1:20 am Monday. Media and even some web users came to the airport to see her arrival as Guo's e-itinerary was published by someone on weibo.com.
"Don't be ridiculous!" the half-angry Guo said to onlookers and reporters as she stepped into a dilapidated Volkswagen with a man, who was later confirmed to be the executive of letv.com, an entertainment website. "Where’s your Maserati and Lamborghini?" someone yelled.
Zhao Zizhong, a professor at the Communication University of China, said the whole incident was likely staged in a bid to get attention.
"It is a show," Zhao said. "The whole affair seems like a stunt to gain media attention."
In fact, Guo's story is much more intriguing on the internet than in reality.
Some web user, again, claimed that the purpose of Guo returning to Beijing was to flee the country to Australia.
Workers at the Australian Embassy in China claimed that they received many phone calls yesterday, saying the callers asked the embassy to reject Guo's visa application.
A self-claimed "Australian Embassy in Beijing" posted a micro-blogging message on weibo.com around 8:42 pm yesterday. The message stated that the embassy has no reason to turn down Guo's application since she is "a law-abiding citizen of the People's Republic of China," and any Chinese citizen "is welcomed by Australia" to visit the country.
However, the so-called "Australian Embassy in Beijing" does not even exist, as the official name is the "Australian Embassy in China."
The incident has shown that some administrative mechanism should be introduced for micro-blogging websites like weibo.com, media experts said.
"Web users normally pay attention to the content but not the source of micro-blogs," said Yu Guoming, professor at Renmin University’s School of Journalism. "That allows space for rumors to circulate."
