TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After tens of thousands of George Floyd anti-racism protestors filled the streets in the U.S., a Chinese student in the U.S. tweeted pictures of luxury bags that he claimed were looted.
The individual, identified as "Yuan Hongrui" (袁宏睿), made several provocative pro-China tweets with pictures of at least three Gucci bags and a Dior bag for men. One of them read: "It is the Gucci bag I looted in Seattle. Is that good-looking? Poor Taiwanese students threatened to report it to the FBI. I am dead. I am in Seattle. Come to get me. Ha ha ha! I love the Communist Party and love my home country more. Americans owe a lot to China and a few bags cannot repay us for our loss. Are American that stingy?"
A further tweet from Yuan accompanied by an image of another Gucci bag read: "Look, they're my booties. Are you (poor Taiwanese students) jealous? It's looted, but so what? It took me so much effort to get these."
Three hours later, he tweeted again, with a picture of a Dior bag for men, saying its label price was US$2,700 and equal to several months of wages for poor Taiwanese students.
Yuan's twitter account was no longer accessible at the time of publication but screenshots of his controversial tweets are being shared. Video footage of the protests circulating online shows a man with a Chinese accent calling out loudly to his gang, "Run, hurry up, run, run, run."
On Thursday (June 4), protests against racism carried on in cities across the U.S. for the 10th day, after 46-year-old African American George Floyd was killed by a white police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes.