China lawmakers may ban actors for life if they're found to have used drugs even once

China lawmakers are mulling to ban actors from the entertainment industry for life if they are found to have used drugs even once. The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (NPC) or the highest organ of state power has come together for its annual week-long meeting since Friday. The body with several delegates from the entertainment industry is going to make a decision regarding the proposition this week. While most of the proposals lose steam before the commencement of the yearly meeting, the proposal to permanently ban actors for drug use has gained wide momentum, raging storms on the internet. According to a report by Variety, the move was proposed by lawyer Zhu Lieyu, who is in charge of the Guangdong Guoding Law Firm. Since then, the topic of a representative proposing celebrities should be banned for life for a single instance of drug use has trended at the top on Weibo this week. The portal added that Zhu opines giving the proposal a green signal would help in ‘purifying’ the industry and people would not have to deal with the consequences of their favourite stars getting involved with drugs. He said: “Actors inherently have a higher level of education, and they are idolized by young people”. Citing this as the reason behind the extra moral responsibility, Zhu pointed out that the “bad impact” of the celebrities using drugs is “more severe, so the punishment for them using drugs should be harsher”. While some actors have protested against the unfair pedestal set for them, Zhu has brushed off the claims. The wide-ranging support seen for the proposal on social media is only indicative of the people’s opinion. Framing guidelines of conduct for the actors is not a new phenomenon in China. A month ago, an NGO backed by the government, the Chinese Association for Performing Arts, had published a new list of moral guidelines for actors and other performers. The body’s website said that if the performers failed to comply with the rules, they could face a life-long ban as punishment. These moral rules were set to come into force from 1 March on a trial basis.