A Taiwanese online personality has allegedly gone missing after he was recorded during a livestream apparently being beaten in a Cambodian casino.
Chen Neng-chuan (陳能釧), also known as Wan An Hsiao Chi (晚安小雞, “Good Night Chicks”), is known for producing paranormal content on Facebook.
His family has been unable to reach him since his last upload, which showed him being beaten and was watched by thousands of viewers, an associate said in a statement yesterday morning.
Photo: Screengrab from Chen Neng-chuan’s Facebook page
The Criminal Investigation Bureau told the Chinese-language United Daily News that authorities had not yet received a report regarding Chen’s alleged disappearance.
However, Preah Sihanouk Province Governor Kuoch Chamroeun yesterday wrote on Facebook, asking people for help finding Chen.
A video on Chen’s channel showed him entering KB International Casino in Sihanoukville in the early hours on Monday, seemingly without permission.
Talking into a cellphone, Chen said in the video that he was investigating rumors of human trafficking and fraud that involved the casino, adding that tips from viewers alleged several Taiwanese had disappeared after accepting employment there.
Soon after he entered, Chen was confronted by armed security guards and tried to flee after an increasingly heated conversation, the video showed.
Sounds of a struggle could be heard after Chen dropped his phone, which was then picked up by a man wearing a uniform.
A glimpse of Chen lying prone on the floor was captured before the phone was turned off.
Later that evening, Chen broadcast live again, saying that he was safe and had been robbed.
Writing on Chen’s Facebook page, a person claiming to be his wife said that he had not communicated with his family since the video was made and that his driver and local police had been asked to investigate.
Chen’s alleged wife and an associate who did not identify himself later made a joint video statement reiterating that Chen’s whereabouts and condition remained unknown and that a report had been filed with local law enforcement.
They said that Chen’s family and production team would fly to Cambodia today to deal with the matter.
Internet personality Liu Yu (劉宇), also known as Si Cha-mao (四叉貓), questioned the authenticity of Chen’s videos.
“All of his money had been stolen, and he can still keep his cameras to do a live broadcast,” Liu said. “Who would believe that?”
Liu said that he used Google Maps and found that Chen was actually in a safe place, surrounded by multiple hotel resorts.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
FRAUD ISSUES: The app meets none of Taiwan’s 15 cybersecurity standards, and in the past year, about 1,706 fraud cases have been identified on it The Ministry of the Interior yesterday ordered Taiwanese Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu (小紅書, also known as RedNote in English) for a year, after detecting hundreds of instances of fraud on the platform. The ISPs have been instructed to block access to the app to its more than 3 million users in Taiwan, effective immediately, Deputy Minister of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) told a news conference at the National Police Agency’s Fraud Prevention Center. The order is being implemented via protocols governing domain name system (DNS) response policy zones, he said. Xiaohongshu meets none