The much-maligned Chinabounder - thought to be an expat blogger who claimed a long list of sexual conquests among young Chinese women and expressed a dim view of the country's men and its government - may be a hoax.

In fact, he may not even be a single person.

The Associated Press said over the weekend that it received a response from the blog site indicating that the controversial messages had been posted by a group which included a British man, an Australian woman, two Chinese men and a Japanese woman.

They said they fabricated the content of "Sex and Shanghai" as an investigation into online vigilante behavior.

"We did not anticipate the level of anger this would raise," the authors told the AP by e-mail.

The message said the blog has been closed out of concern for the safety of the group's Chinese members and innocent expatriates in Shanghai.

Dr Zhang Jiehai, who had called for all Chinese Internet users to "track down the foreign scoundrel and kick him out of China" in a flaming online posting 10 days ago, declined to comment on the AP report.

Asked what might happen next, Zhang said: "We haven't made any progress in the search, except for a linguist friend who said the author was absolutely not a Briton, judging from his use of words."

(Shanghai Daily September 4, 2006)