TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Chinese TV station, Dragon Television, has come under fire and canceled its special program celebrating the city’s efforts to combat the virus as residents in Shanghai struggle to survive under the Chinese government’s extreme zero-COVID-19 policy.

On Tuesday (April 12), Dragon Television released a lengthy program detailing several “chapters” and dozens of performances to be featured in the show entitled “A City of People’s Will, Protect Shanghai Together — Dragon Television’s Anti-Pandemic Special Program.” The show was to feature some of China’s top stars including Jackson Yee (易烊千璽), Dilraba Dilmurat, Ma Yili (馬伊琍), Zheng Kai (鄭愷), Wang Yibo (王一博), Lay Zhang (張藝興), and Hu Ge (胡歌).

Originally scheduled to air on Wednesday evening (April 13), the show was abruptly canceled in the early morning of April 12. “Dragon Television thanks everyone for their concern. The airing of the featured program ‘A City of People’s Will, Protect Shanghai Together — Dragon Television’s Anti-Pandemic Special Program,’ produced through cloud recording, will be paused tomorrow evening (April 13). We welcome all valuable suggestions for our work,” Dragon Television wrote in a post on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.

The post quickly garnered over 20,000 comments, though most have been censored, leaving only “featured selections” visible.

Qiqiguaiguai (琪琪乖乖) wrote: “You still have enough conscience left to suspend the show, I’ll give you that. Show more stuff from reality, we don’t need people singing praises right now, we need people who can really shoulder responsibility and work.”

“I Changed My Nickname Thank you” (改暱稱了謝謝) commented: “Why don’t you devote the money, time, energy, manpower, and means to civilian livelihood? I want to eat vegetables, eat meat, eat eggs, eat bread, eat rice, eat vitamins, eat fruits, and drink milk, not watch a group of celebrities singing and dancing. What is the use? I ask you, what is the use of this?”

A user named “New Species z” (新物種z) added, “Why don’t you livestream how to shop for food, this seems more important.”

The show’s poor taste was not the only focus of controversy, however. Wang Haitao (王海濤), who wrote the lyrics to the renowned Chinese song “Empty World” reportedly shared on the Chinese messaging app WeChat that Dragon Television had featured his song in the show after he had refused to authorize it.

According to screenshots shared on Weibo, Wang was contacted by Dragon Television about using his work for free on Thursday (April 7). “I had my manager tell them, no matter if free or paid, I do not authorize this song to be used in the evening show,” he wrote.

“There is no way to sue. They are discussing this with you with a political logic, not with copyright law logic. My point in posting this is clear: I did not authorize my work for a show like this to be used,” he added later. “The reason why I refused to authorize this has nothing to do with their original request to use it for free. At this moment, the people in Shanghai are still in a harsh environment for survival; it is not my style to provide my work for a show like this for free. Even if you pay me, I will not do something like this.”