Chinese actress Zhao Lusi was heavily criticized online, with nearly 10,000 derogatory posts against her in one week.

The increased negative press comes after she revealed that she has been suffering from depression for the last 5 years and accusations of being mistreated by her previous management.

Zhao, who stars in "The Romance of Tiger and Rose," is taking time off to recover from illness, according to a report by Sina on January 3.

The actress revealed that she was hospitalized on December 18, 2024, after suffering a stroke.

As reported by Kbizoom, public discourse around her circumstances has blanketed social media platforms since then, with around 250 trending topics related to her on Weibo alone.

Though many netizens felt sorry about Zhao's hardship in life, others considered Zhao using her incident to gain attention.

Some of her critics claim breaking news of her health and battles with her management company are simply cunningly planned steps to end the contract without a penalty.

After the online backlash, Weibo's management team has begun deleting accounts that have breached the platform's online behavior regulations.

In an open letter published on December 31, Zhao revealed that she had cancelled her contract with her former agency because of the harassment she was still facing from her ex-manager. "The manager "started spreading malicious rumors about my character, specifically that I was "arrogant" and "manipulative,"" she said.

Zhao's health problems came on the back of several personal tragedies over the years, including the public silence surrounding praise as well as the death of many close people. All these challenges have allegedly deteriorated her mental and physical health.