Popular anti-West Chinese blogger Zhou Xiaoping was the subject of Western media reports this week discussing controversial, and seemingly inaccurate assertions he has made about life in the West.

While Zhou's Sina Weibo microblog now has more than 500,000 followers in China, he hadn't attracted much Western scrutiny until last Thursday when he met President Xi Jinping at a rare arts and literature conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

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Zhou had an honored place sitting next to Mo Yan, the famed Chinese writer and Nobel Prize winner, at the special literature and arts meeting. He posted a selfie he shot near Xi. In his blog, Zhou said Xi told him to continue circulating "positive energy on the Internet."

While even Chinese propaganda officials agree Zhou makes errors, his blog is allowed to blast away over the heavily censored Chinese Internet while bloggers praising the West often have their posts and websites taken down quickly.

Dozens of pro-Western bloggers have been arrested over the last two years, while Communist party officials continued to praise Zhou for opening dialogue and earnest discussions about the West vis-a-vis China.

Helping shape popular opinion thanks to the unprecedented commentating leeway afforded by Chinese officials, Zhou's musings have been reprinted in state-run Chinese media outlets. He has helped shape public opinion, Dali Yang, a University of Chicago political scientist, told the Associated Press, adding, "he is so unconvincing that it has reflected badly on the regime."

Some Zhou claims being fact checked this week include assertions that mandatory vehicle insurance in the U.S. costs $3,500 a year, it takes $30,000 to buy a low-end U.S. automobile and more than 50 percent of U.S. kids don't graduate from high school. He also said the Obama family spent $4 million for a single White House meal.

In fact, low-end cars cost around $15,000, car insurance generally is a few hundred dollars annually and 80 percent of U.S. students graduate high school.

The Obama meal reference may have been an erroneous assertion based on published reports that the Obama family Hawaii vacations cost $4 million, although much of that money went for the use of Ar Force One to transport the family.

TagsZhou Xiaoping, blogs, Mo Yan, propaganda, MEDIA