VIDEO BY LIU DISCUSSING HIS MOTHER’S DISAPPEARANCE. FILM CREDIT: VLOG心聲/YOUTUBE

New Bloom
Date: 03/02/2019 
By: Brian Hioe

A CHINESE YOUTUBE vlogger who has in the past expressed support for Taiwanese democracy surnamed Liu reported last week that his mother has been detained by the National Security Bureau for over four days in his native Suzhou. The disappearance of Liu’s mother should be concerning, not only within Taiwan but to Chinese supporters of Taiwan—even if they live outside of China.

Liu runs a vlog on YouTube with over 20,000 followers by the name of “Vlog心聲”. Liu has been studying in the United States since October of last year and took advantage of being outside of China to critically comment on Chinese politics. With regards to the relation of Taiwan and China, Liu has stated that he hopes one day that China will be democratic and that the 23 million people of Taiwan will be able to freely decide whether they want to be part of China or not.

This would be a position which is not explicitly supporting Taiwanese independence, simply one that would call for Taiwan’s democratic rights to self-determination to be respected. Nevertheless, this and Liu’s other commentary may still have incited Chinese authorities to take action against Liu’s mother.   [FULL  STORY]