In 1967, the Chinese literary theorist Zhou Yang, who was a supporter of Mao Zedong, was labelled as two-faced by gang of four member Yao Wenyuan, in an essay titled “On the Two-Faced Counter-Revolutionary Zhou Yang (《评反革命两面派周扬》)".[5][6][7]
In 2017 the Cyberspace Administration of China, which administers access to the Internet in China, publicly criticized its former director Lu Wei, calling him "a typical two-faced person (典型的两面人)".[8][9][10]
Since 2017, the term has also been used to refer to Uyghur politicians and celebrities who secretly support Xinjiang independence, and to those criticizing Chinese policies related to the Uyghurs.[2][11][12] Famous examples are Shirzat Bawudun and Sattar Sawut, who respectively are former heads of justice and education in Xinjiang.[13][14]
In 2020, Zhao Zhengyong, 69, the former chief of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party was sentenced to death following his conviction for embezzling over $100 million yuan. Just before his conviction, he was called a "shameless two-faced person (可耻的两面人)" in a CCP publication.[15][16] Three years prior to this, Zhao had called in the same journal for a crackdown on "two-faced people in government".[17]
In 2021, fashion house Hugo Boss was accused of being two-faced following its criticism of Chinese labor and human rights practices regarding Uighurs working in Xinjiang.[18] The United States responded that the criticism was part of a state-run campaign designed to criticize those who had encouraged a boycott of Uighur-produced cotton.[19]