On the morning of October 15, 2025, a livestreamer referred to as Sisi stepped out of her house in Yongzhou, China, together with her younger daughter. On the shoe rack exterior her door sat an unfamiliar package deal. When she picked it up, it exploded.
The blast burned Sisi’s face, neck and arms. Her daughter escaped severe harm, although a part of her hair and backpack had been singed. Police arrested a former viewer, then 27-year-old Liu Mouqiang, later that day. In response to the indictment reported by Chinese language media, the package deal was the fourth in a collection of assaults prosecutors say Liu carried out towards Sisi.
Earlier than the bombing, Sisi had repeatedly rejected Liu, returned the cash she acquired from his items, and brought him to court docket over his harassment. His pursuit continued throughout livestreams, social media accounts, and bodily places.
The case exposes the dangers ladies creators face. Typically a viewer treats paid consideration as a private declare on the livestreamer’s life.
Liu first encountered Sisi by her livestreams. Sisi informed The Beijing Information that he had spent slightly greater than 1,000 yuan (round $150) on items for her. He later complained that he had reached “Degree 28” by digital gifting and was being handled “worse than a vacationer.” Sisi defined that the extent mirrored his cumulative spending throughout a number of creators.
Liu ultimately discovered Sisi offline and commenced pursuing her. In response to Sisi, he supplied 160,000 yuan if she agreed to marry him. She repeatedly rejected his advances. As she distanced herself, Liu left a revealing touch upon her social media: “Feminine livestreamers all belong to the highest donor.” He later created new accounts and posted insulting and manipulated content material about her. Chinese language media documented the messages and Sisi’s account of his marriage proposal.
Liu’s habits displays a harmful logic in creator economies: spending can foster a way of possession. Livestreaming rewards creators for cultivating familiarity, consideration, and interplay. For girls creators, that industrial intimacy can collide with misogynistic expectations that male monetary or emotional funding deserves feminine consideration in return. Rejection can then turn into a set off for retaliation.
Sisi transferred Liu 600 yuan, hoping he would cease pursuing her. The web harassment continued. In response to detailed reporting on the case, the sum lined the roughly 500 yuan she had acquired after the platform took its share of his items, plus about 100 yuan he had spent on a meal.
On June 4, 2025, the Qiyang Individuals’s Court docket registered Sisi’s civil lawsuit over Liu’s harassment. A subsequent court-mediated settlement required him to delete defamatory materials, publicly apologize, and pay her 3,000 yuan in compensation. The authorized course of, nonetheless, carried its personal hidden danger. In response to reporting primarily based on the investigation, the mediation supplies contained Sisi’s house handle, which Liu later used to find her house.
Her livestreams supplied further details about her actions. Sisi informed reporters that Liu had beforehand discovered places the place she was streaming and had used backgrounds seen in her broadcasts to trace down her household’s enterprise.
Prosecutors say Liu’s retaliation escalated over a number of months. In Might 2025, he planted an explosive system above the doorway to Sisi’s mother and father’ store and remotely detonated it after seeing by her livestream that she was there. In August, he positioned a metallic spike beneath her automotive tire. In October, he sprayed a corrosive liquid into her house. Eleven days later, prosecutors say, he left the disguised explosive package deal exterior her house. The indictment describes all 4 assaults.
In March 2026, prosecutors charged Liu with endangering public security by harmful means. The case went to trial in June. At trial, Liu argued that the case concerned a private relationship dispute, an account Sisi rejected. The court docket stated it might announce its verdict at a later date.
Liu’s declare that feminine livestreamers “belong to the highest donor” laid naked the entitlement behind his more and more aggressive actions. He believed spending cash on digital items was grounds for demanding a relationship. He continued to pursue Sisi after she rejected him and returned the cash she had acquired. Her efforts to finish contact had been adopted by continued harassment and, prosecutors allege, repeated assaults.
Sisi’s expertise additionally exposes the boundaries of China’s authorized cures for on-line abuse. By the point Sisi’s civil case reached mediation, Liu had already staged on bomb assault, though she had but to study who was accountable. The settlement addressed his defamatory posts, however the harassment continued. Worse, the mediation supplies gave him her house handle, which he used to stage one more assault. In search of authorized redress inadvertently led her harasser proper to her doorstep – actually.