Xiaomi: a hater's taunt, a fan revolt

The smartphone & EV maker penalises senior executives after fans discovered it was paying an influencer who once called them "losers."

Xiaomi Corp. issued rare sanctions against senior executives to atone for paying a longtime hater, a move that sparked a loyalist revolt.

The crisis involving the Hong Kong-listed technology giant began on the afternoon of Monday, 5 January, 2026, when Zong Ning—a tech influencer with over 2.5 million followers known as “All-Powerful Big Bear”—boasted that Xiaomi had paid him for publicity. In China, it is common practice for influencers and even legacy media to receive corporate payments to influence coverage. Non-disclosure is the norm, and Chinese society has largely become accustomed to these transactional arrangements.

However, Zong’s disclosure did not lend his actions a noble air of transparency; instead, it ignited a firestorm of opposition from Xiaomi’s fan base. The company executives’ Weibo comment sections, usually a venue for brand devotion, were flooded with demands for an explanation.

“Mi Fans are just tools for making money,” one fan wrote.

“The sheer irony of this is enough to break any fan’s psychological defences,” another mourned. “I used to defend Xiaomi so fiercely that I even spent my own money to boost posts for smaller creators who were doing good work. Now, looking back, I feel like a joke.”

The intense reaction stems from Zong’s long history of not just criticising Xiaomi’s products but disparaging the brand and its consumers on a personal level. While Xiaomi built its reputation on “value for money” rather than luxury (Apple, for example), Zong famously labelled users of Xiaomi’s budget-friendly Redmi line as “bottom-tier losers” and described the brand’s supporters as “negative assets.”

Zong has a track record of friction with other major Chinese brands. In 2024, Lenovo successfully sued him for fabricating comments attributed to its CEO. In 2020, Midea, a leading Chinese appliance maker, was forced to cancel a livestream featuring Zong following a public boycott. His early career is also frequently cited for the exaggerated promotion of male enhancement supplements—a tactic widely regarded in China as the lowest form of marketing stunt.

By Tuesday, Xiaomi was forced to publicly admit to the financial arrangement with Zong, confirm it had terminated the partnership, and pledge never to hire him again.

The “paid-for” flattery had already begun to surface before the collapse; Zong had recently praised Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s founder, for a four-hour livestream dismantling the brand’s electric vehicle, claiming he had “always held respect” for such “earnestness and persistence.”

This calculated praise could not save the deal. Xiaomi’s management concluded that the cooperation “seriously violated company principles.” In a rare move, the company publicly penalised Group Vice President and CMO Xu Fei and PR General Manager Xu Jieyun, while dismissing the staff member directly involved.

In an official statement, the technology giant said the incident had “seriously hurt the feelings of Mi Fans.” It reaffirmed the company’s core mantra: “Because of the fans, there is Xiaomi,” adding that the trust of its supporters is the “foundation of every achievement the company has made.”

The term “Mi Fan” (米粉) has long been a distinct cultural phenomenon in China. As early as 2014, reports by The New York Times highlighted the uniquely intense bond between the company and its consumers, a relationship that blurs the line between brand and belief.

This intimacy is rooted in Xiaomi’s origins. In its infancy, lacking the capital for traditional advertising, the company relied on an online community forum where founders and engineers spent hours daily interacting with users, co-creating the operating system with their customers. This history transformed buyers into stakeholders, fostering a grassroots connection that defines the brand to this day.

Therefore, the discovery that the company’s PR apparatus was negotiating a “truce” or marketing deal with one of the industry’s most prominent trolls (and enemies) created an unbearable betrayal.

That is why when Xiaomi founder Lei Jun publicly addressed the fallout, he noted that because Zong had “consistently attacked and belittled Xiaomi users,” the cooperation was “intolerable.” While the core of public relations is often seen as turning enemies into friends—sometimes throwing a little cash (at least in China)—at Xiaomi, the emotional contract with the fans takes precedence over conventional PR tactics.