Last year, China and Kazakhstan reached a mutual visa exemption agreement, which took effect on November 10. Following this, Kazakhstan became a popular travel destination for Chinese tourists, and many Kazakhstani vloggers began to visit China.
However, a Kazakhstani vlogger named Davai Denis and his wife, Balnur, have recently been accused of making false claims about their travel experiences in China for financial gain.
In their video, they alleged that Balnur lost her mobile phone in a restroom at a shopping mall in Shanghai, and that the security guards and local police did not assist her in finding it.
Balnur stated in the video that she was certain the last time she used her phone was in the restroom. When she realized it was missing, she immediately returned to the restroom but could not find it. She mentioned that she asked several people for help, but they couldn’t speak English. When she approached the shopping mall’s security guards, she claimed they did not show concern.
She added that she saw a suspicious-looking woman and informed the security guards, but they did not question her. When she requested to check the security camera footage, she was told she needed a warrant. When she attempted to use the Find My iPhone feature, she discovered it had already been turned off.
After two hours, they decided to call the police, but the couple claimed that the police did not take her case seriously. They alleged that the police only asked irrelevant questions, such as where they were from. In the video, she concluded by saying, “I can’t guarantee that your equipment in China is safe now, especially in big cities.”
After narrating her story, she displayed WeChat Pay and Alipay QR codes, urging netizens to donate money to finance her travels since she no longer had access to her bank accounts and mobile money, which were lost with the phone. “Now I need financial assistance, a mobile phone to continue creating videos, and an air ticket to return to Kazakhstan,” she said in the video.
She also mentioned that she had previously visited Shenzhen and Hong Kong and had made videos about the safety of Chinese cities but no longer felt the same way. Many netizens were surprised when she displayed the QR codes asking for donations.
Some netizens commented that she had used the same plot in Indonesia and Malaysia.
