BEIJING — A day after the forced removal of a passenger from a United Airlines flight provoked a social media furor in the United States, a similar outcry followed in China, after state-run news outlets here described the man as being of Chinese descent.

Long before the man’s name was widely known, another passenger on the flight on Sunday said that he had complained of being singled out because he was Chinese. The passenger, Dr. David Dao, was later identified publicly by his lawyers.

By Wednesday morning, the hashtag “United forcibly removes passenger from plane” was the most popular topic on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, garnering more than 550 million views and more than 240,000 comments. Many Chinese social media users accused United of racism, while others called for a boycott.

The outrage was furious and sustained over the passenger’s being dragged from his seat by security officers after refusing to be bumped from an overbooked flight from Chicago to Louisville, Ky.