TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- American singer Katy Perry's visa application to travel to China for an upcoming Victoria's Secret show in Shanghai, has been denied due to a costume she wore supporting Taiwan's Sunflower Student Movement and for waving the national flag of Taiwan at a concert in Taipei two years ago, according to US media reports.

Although Katy Perry originally had been given the green light in advance to perform at the show, sources told Page Six that she was later denied after Chinese officials discovered social media images of her performance in Taiwan in 2015 in when she wore dress covered in sunflowers, hearkening to the Sunflower Student Movement protest against a trade pact with China in 2014, and draped the national flag of Taiwan over her back.

According to the source who spoke with Page Six, before a Western entertainer can be granted permission to play in China, they now must go through an extensive social-media vetting process to ensure they have not posted anything that would be considered offensive to the communist state:

For every artist who wants to perform in China, officials comb through their social-media and press reports to see if they have done anything deemed to be offensive to the country. Maroon 5 was banned a few years ago because one band member wished the Dalai Lama happy birthday on Twitter.”

For some reason, Chinese officials have placed extra scrutiny on this year's lingerie show, with models Gigi Hadid, Adriana Lima, Julia Belyakova, Kate Grigorieva and Irina Sharipova all being banned or facing serious visa issues for various perceived slights they allegedly committed against the sensibilities of the sensitive, communist regime.