Taiwan YouTuber flirts with a president. Mainland China finds it ‘inappropriate’ – but not for the reasons you might think
- Promoter not amused by Chen Chia-chin – aka the Potter King – after he repeatedly referred to the island’s leader as ‘president’ and demands he conform to ‘one-China’ principle
- Tsai Ing-wen uses incident to hit out at ‘unacceptable’ behaviour and affirms support for freedom of expression in run-up to election
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has hit out at mainland China over a demand that a popular YouTuber remove a video in which he addressed her as “president”.
She said this was unacceptable in a free society and used the incident to highlight her commitment to upholding democracy and freedom of expression in the run-up to next month’s presidential election.
The video in question was intended as a lighthearted encounter between Tsai and Chen Chia-chin – a vlogger better known as Potter King – as part of her attempts to win over younger voters ahead of the January 11 vote.
Chen is well known for demonstrating his flirtation techniques, which he showed off to the island’s leader in the clip titled “the first person in the world to flirt with a president”.
The video has had more than 3.3 million views and 200,000 likes since it was published on Saturday, but Chen’s frequent use of the president’s title – and the implication that Taiwan was not part of China – angered his mainland promoter Papitube.