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Fanny Liu kicked off China's TikTok for mentioning Taiwan pineapples

Liu yanked off Douyin for saying 'I'm going to the Little Unify Taiwan Shop to buy pineapple'

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Fanny Liu (left) waving Chinese flags. (Weibo, CNA photos)

Fanny Liu (left) waving Chinese flags. (Weibo, CNA photos)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Controversial Taiwanese singer Fanny Liu (劉樂妍) was kicked off of China's version of TikTok for referring to Taiwanese pineapples.

Last Friday (Feb. 26), Beijing announced it would ban all imports of Taiwan pineapples, alleging that “harmful organisms” had been found in the fruit. Taiwan responded by launching a "Freedom Pineapple" campaign and within four days, Taiwanese companies and individuals pre-ordered 41,687 metric tons of pineapples, exceeding an entire year's worth of exports to China, while Japan ordered an additional 6,200 tons.

Liu, never a stranger to controversy, was eager to weigh in on the fruit fracas. On March 1, she posted a video of fruit on Weibo in which she points to fruit for sale and says "This is called boluo [word for pineapple used in China]. We don't eat Taiwanese fengli [Taiwanese word for pineapple]."

Fanny Liu kicked off China's TikTok for mentioning Taiwan pineapples
Liu making sarcastic comments about Taiwanese pineapples. (Weibo image)

In the post, she also sarcastically thanked "the Motherland" for a policy that benefits Taiwan and enables Taiwanese people to eat "Taiwanese pineapple." She then uploaded the video to Douyin, China's version of TikTok, which is also owned by ByteDance.

However, after she uploaded the video, it was swiftly taken down and her Douyin account was locked. She said that she received a notice from Douyin that her account was deleted because her statement "I'm going to the Little Unify Taiwan Shop to buy pineapple," violated the "laws, regulations, and policies or live behavior norms and other platform rules" according to a screenshot she posted on Weibo on March 4.

Appearing to indicate that she had run into similar problems before, she wrote "The old account was taken down again." Unfazed by the punishment, she created a new Douyin account and blithely directed her fans to follow her there.

Fanny Liu kicked off China's TikTok for mentioning Taiwan pineapples
Liu posted an explanation of why her Douyin account had been taken down. (Weibo image)