KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — A brewery in China is estimated to lose at least 100 million yuan (RM65 million) from the disposal of canned beers with Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan’s image.

This follows the decision of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China to blacklist him from all social media platforms after photos of him visiting a Japanese shrine went viral recently, reported Taiwanese portal star.setn.com 

A photo showing cartons of the beer at a warehouse waiting for disposal has gone viral.

A promotion poster showing Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan for the beer brand. — Picturefrom Facebook/ All About Chinese Stars

Zhang went from hero to zero overnight after photos of him posing at Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours some of Japan’s worst war criminals, went viral.

His apology has failed to calm Chinese social media users.

Many commented that companies must now choose their ambassadors carefully while others demanded Zhang step in to compensate the company.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Today Online reported that Zhang had lost an estimated 50 million yuan (RM32.6 million) from all his endorsement contracts due to his controversial photo.

Zhang is the second artist to be blacklisted by Chinese social media after hip-hop star Kris Wu, who is being investigated for rape.