Upon joining the HFPA in 2010, I observed a glaring lack of diversity within the organization, with only one Chinese and one white Sub-Saharan African member. Galvanized, I set out on a quest to recruit more African and Chinese members.

Serendipitously, on March 5th, 2014, I received a call from a certain Ting Ting, who introduced herself as a Chinese journalist seeking my sponsorship. Intrigued, I agreed to meet her the following day to examine her journalistic portfolio.

She arrived at my abode with a bottle of red wine, which I initially declined but eventually accepted due to her insistence on observing Chinese customs. Eschewing any further tête-à-tête at my residence (a divine stroke of luck), we ventured to an Italian eatery where Ting Ting showcased her journalistic prowess. Impressed, I agreed to sponsor her.

Upon recommending Ting Ting to the HFPA, I was bombarded with warnings from fellow members, painting her as a fraudulent journalist and a master of bribery. Undeterred, I staunchly defended Ting Ting, inadvertently drawing the ire of my peers.

During my month-long campaign for Ting Ting, a malicious rumor surfaced, insinuating that I sponsored her in exchange for sexual favors. Appalled, I ceased my advocacy on her behalf. Despite this, I maintained a cordial relationship with Ting Ting and never allowed her into my home, even when she offered to nurse me back to health during an illness.

When she was not voted into the HFPA, I called her to relay the news and warned her of the HFPA’s pernicious rumor. She said that “she had known about it and laughed it out.” I was disheartened that she had not shared this information with me and decided not to sponsor her again. I told her to find another member to sponsor her. The following year, no one agreed to sponsor her. She found one in 2016. There were also rumors about him sleeping with her and doubts about her credibility as a journalist continued to circulate among members. Nonetheless, she was voted in May 2016. Thereafter, she thanked me profusely for my support in a text and invited me out to celebrate.

Following her rejection from the HFPA, I informed her of the outcome and the pernicious rumor, which she claimed to have known and dismissed with laughter. Disenchanted by her lack of transparency, I declined to sponsor her again and suggested she find another advocate. Eventually, she secured another sponsor and was admitted to the HFPA in May 2016.

We remained friendly as she became a member of the HFPA, until I opted to sponsor more Chinese members, which provoked her wrath. She laucned a malicious campaign against the Chinese applicants, alleging that they threatened her livelihood. Her vendetta against me evidently endured.

On January 2022, she went to The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman, who is infamous for reporting falsities and has been fantasizing about my sex life since 2013, and accused me of sexual misconduct for allegedly informing her of the HFPA’s rumor after she had become a member. She also spiced up the rumor to “I sponsored her because she gave me a blowjob,” adding that only I spoke like that, although I was not the author of the rumor. She also claimed that she didn’t know how to react and just walked away, which is entirely uncharacteristic of her.

Following the HFPA crisis last year, Ting Ting resigned from the HFPA in July 2021, after failing to gain a position on a committee, and went on a press tour accusing the HFPA members of blocking new applications from entering the association. Chinese applicants, who were blocked by her, were quick to condemn her.

One of her Chinese victims gave up on a career in Hollywood and returned to China. Others are still so traumatized by her behavior that are refusing to get anywhere near the HFPA, even when the HFPA invited them in 2021 to join. In fact, the HFPA still has the same -now inactive- 92-year-old Chinese member that it did when I joined 12 years ago. There is no single active member reporting for China, Taiwan or Hong Kong in the HFPA. Interestingly, Waxman, who unceasingly criticizes the HFPA for blocking new applicants, was not bothered by this fact. Instead, she is demanding an apology from me to Ting Ting.

Meanwhile, the HFPA, who still refuses to investigate the allegations of corruption and racsim against the organization, has encouraged Ting Ting to file a complaint against me for writing this article about her, notwithstanding they themselves described her as “rat” and a “cancer.” Unfortunately, Ting Ting declined their generous offer. Their investigators tried hard to prove her claims, but they failed in their mission and concluded the following:

“However, even though investigators find some evidence and witness statements corroborate Ms. Xu’s accounts, on balance, investigators cannot find by a preponderance of the evidence this statement about a “blow job” was made in 2017.”

Ting Ting probably knew that her accusations wouldn’t stick on their own. She brought with two more women, Tian Li, whom I introduced to her, and Anna Pavlova, who I had no recollection of who she was, to fabricate more spurious claims against me. They all spoke to the Wrap.

Notwithstanding the evidence, The Wrap and Sharon Waxman continue to stand by their reporting.

Here is Ms. Xu’s statement to the Wrap:

“Wenting “Ting Ting” Xu, a former HFPA member from China who resigned from the group in protest in 2021 over the lack of reforms, said she was mortified after she got into the organization in 2016 — after trying and failing to do so in 2014 — and found that Asi shared with her a rumor that she had performed oral sex on him to gain admission.

“Sam one day came up to me and said, ‘When you wanted to apply the first time, I was your sponsor, and members laughed at me and joked that you must’ve given me a blow job in order for me to sponsor you,’” she recalled. “Only people like Sam would even say that. Rumors exist, that’s fine. But it doesn’t mean you can just tell that person, like that they said you gave me a blow job. It’s just not something people say to a woman. I just walked away. I don’t think I even said anything to him.”

The individual close to Asi countered that Xu was aware of the rumor in 2014 and had laughed it off and is now raising the claims to retaliate against Asi for sponsoring other Chinese journalists to the organization — a charge Xu flatly denied. Asi declined to comment.”