According to Wikipedia:
Richard Liu Qiangdong (Chinese: 刘强东; born March 10, 1973 or February 14, 1974) is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur. He has been called the “Jeff Bezos of China” and his company JD.com has been compared to Amazon due to its business model: Liu founded JingDong (JD) as a business-to-consumer single retail store for magneto-optical products in June 1998 and later transformed the company into an e-commerce website known as JD.com in 2004. Liu is the company’s chief executive officer and expanded its e-commerce products from selling consumer electronics to less specialized items, which grew JD.com into one of the largest retailers in China. According to Forbes, Liu’s net worth is US$9 billion as of May 2020 with a 15.8% stake in JD.com. He was included on the “China Rich List” for 2019.
It is not a small feat to be compared to Jeff Bezos. As usual, no one can achieve such status without deep connection with the CCP. So, it is not a surprise that Liu has a bloated sense of invincibility.
Also from Wikipedia,
On August 31, 2018, Liu was arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the charge of rape.The complainant is a 21-year-old Chinese student who attended a dinner party with Liu on the night of August 30. After the party ended at 9:30 PM, the complainant and Liu returned to her apartment, where she alleges the rape occurred at 1:00 AM. Liu was released pending further investigation and returned to Beijing.
On September 2, 2018, JD.com issued a statement that the company would take legal action against “false reporting or rumours” after the local police found “no substance to the claim against Mr. Liu”. Three American law firms have alleged that this statement was misleading and announced a class-action lawsuits in response. Liu’s attorneys denied any wrongdoing and claimed that the charges are not supported by evidence.
On December 21, 2018, The office of the Hennepin County Attorney said they had not found enough evidence to charge Liu.
On April 16, 2019, Liu Jingyao, a student at the University of Minnesota, formally filed a civil lawsuit against Liu Qiangdong, claiming Liu forced himself upon her in his vehicle after the dinner and later raped her at her apartment. The lawsuit seeks damages of more than $50,000. In April 2020, the judge overseeing the case declined the motion to dismiss JD.com from the litigation; both the company and Liu are named defendants.
Wikipedia was not updated: this case just resulted in settlement on October 2nd, the day before the court trial was scheduled. This is also why we are telling this story today.
The Wikipedia page also omitted lots of details of the case. For example, on September 28th, NYT had an article about the case: “Sex Assault Trial in U.S. a Rare Moment for Chinese #MeToo Movement”. The report accurately recounted the background of the night of August 31st:
Ms. Liu (Jingyao), who grew up in China, had just transferred to the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management in the summer of 2018 when a professor recruited her to volunteer for a week long business executive program. Toward its end, she said in court filings, one of the Chinese executives invited her to a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis for what she thought was a dinner to honour the volunteers.
Richard Liu was one of the students in the business executive program for Doctorate of Business Administration, which is a collaboration between University of Minnesota and Qinghua university, a program devoted to “Wealthy and powerful Chinese businessman”. After the rape charge was reported to the police, a professor at the Carlson school helped Richard Liu secured top “White Shoes” lawyer in the USA, whereas the accuser, Jingyao had no legal help. This professor made audio recording of the conversation between Jingyao and Richard Liu’s lawyer without informing Jingyao. The recording was later used in a smear campaign to undermine the credibility of the accuser.
Because of JD’s influence in China, most of Chinese social media users believe that Jingyao was shamelessly exploring the opportunity for extortion, aka Xianrentiao (仙 人 跳).
Outside of China, Jingyao had a small but passionate group of supporters, most of them are young women.
The moment the news of the settlement came out, they received a note from Jingyao, apologizing that “I can not carry on till the last moment.” The group released their first announcement on their Wechat public account:
Hug Jingyao, Understand her choice
Perhaps it is the best option for Jingyao to settle before the court trial, and it is also her right. Via the judiciary procedures in the USA, Jingyao get a public closure. She could have accepted a settlement in 2018, but she chose to go public, to contribute to the MeToo movement. In the past four years, we witnessed the hardship she went through in the court system and in the public opinion. We are happy that she was spared of the intense stress during court hearing and the slandering outside the court.
During the procedure of the case, she opened up herself, recounted her experience, and hence opened a public space for other women, so we can discuss and explore the institutions of misogyny, the culture of drinking, the culture of rape, the hunting of women by the international capital power, etc. These are all important topics that got widely discussed by feminists.
In 2018 feminists rejected the “perfect victim” idea and made the rejection known. Today, we explain the rejection again: we don’t demand a perfect victim, we don’t scrutinize the victims, we don’t expect her to be a feminist heroine, and we don’t require her to sacrifice herself for other people’s wishes. We can not use the victim as a tool for our goal. We believe she will continue to make the best choice for herself. This is exactly what we have hoped for her.
We thank Jingyao, for going along this road with us.
Then they issued a second article recounting their experience of the last three years since Jingyao filed civil lawsuit.
On April 18th 2019, Zhao Yaya, a graduate of University of Minnesota, started a website UMN Alumni and Friends for Jingyao soliciting comments from people to show support for Jingyao. Within three days, they received 3700 comments to show support. Many shared their experience. It showed that “overseas students did not escape the sex culture and power dynamic of China”.
Qiqi, a Chinese MeToo activist joined a translating group for Jingyao to combat the misinformation spread by JD’s PR team. The group is a volunteer group of about 30 people spread all over the world. When selected audio passages between Jingyao and Richard Liu’s lawyer were “leaked” on social media in China, they translated the entire conversation into Chinese. When the other side edited CCTV footage of the night and released them on Chinese social media, they also went through the CCTV video of the nights to retell the stories.
Eventually, Qiqi realized that without an open discussion of the culture that can always find excuses for the rapists and find flaws with the victims, no matter how much details they put out in the public, they could not change the mindset in China.
(I remember those days the fight over the narrative of the case was very intense on Chinese social media. It is very hard to underestimate the power of money and connection in China. It is far worse than similar cases in the USA, because feminism has been demonized for years in China.)
When the first witness hearing was opened on September 11st in 2019, four Asian women showed up in the court house. All others present were men. This was organized by a feminist lawyer Liang Xiaowen in New York. They want people in the court to realize this case affect real people.
On the other side is the elite lawyer team, 8 lawyers and 4-5 paralegals, of Richard Liu. The team includes Jill Brisbois, who specializes in white washing similar cases for rich clients in the USA. “She will not hesitate to accept the cases that some attorneys won’t touch, including those involving high-profile allegations of sexual misconduct.”
On July 7th of 2020, the court hearing moved online due to COVID. There was about 300 applications from around the world to listen in. Eventually about 100 people participated online. The judge commented that this is the largest audience he has ever had.
On June 24, 2022, the supporters saw Jingyao for the first time in the first offline hearing. They also saw the video documents presented to the court for the first time. They were very shaken by the details and they think that it is very tough for Jingyao to get to this stage and they would support her no matter what she chose.
As the court hearing neared, the information war heated up. A set of photos of Richard Liu and his pregnant wife shopping in a Target store in Minneapolis spread fast on Chinese social media.
Well, have you seen any billionaire shopping in a Target store lately?
While Liu’s legal team denied media coverage of the trial, many Chinese media are paid to spread information like the above to show what a wonderful husband Richard Liu is.
On October 1st, about 20 volunteers arrived in Minneapolis,with a few thousand dollars to face off the powerful PR team of JD and the elite legal team of Richard Liu. Liang Xiaowen was busy contacting media. The settlement came as a surprise. But many felt relaxed. They said they did not want her to go through what Amber Heard had gone through.
The case had helped many of Jingyao’s supporters grow into feminists. They are now thinking for the long term. “This world is such a bad state bad. As long as you give your effort, you have no regret whatever the result will be.”
This is purely speculation, but an interesting one.
The NYT report I mentioned earlier, “Sex Assault Trial in U.S. a Rare Moment for Chinese #MeToo Movement” has one paragraph that got much attention among Chinese readers:
According to court documents, among those who attended the Minneapolis dinner were Li Botan, the son-in-law of Jia Qinglin, a former member of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s elite decision-making body; and Li Wa, who has gone into business with Mr. Xi’s brother-in-law, Deng Jiagui.
The dinner here refers to the dinner on August 31st, 2018, when Jingyao was made to drink lots of alcohol and was later raped by Richard Liu. As you can see, Liu is very close to the centre of the universe, our dear supreme leader. Since this month is a very important month for the dear supreme leader, the centre of the universe might have hinted to Mr. Liu to settle before the court trial drags on. After all, this is China. even Chinese Jeff Bezos has to bow.
Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture for Dai people in the extreme south of Yunnan Province, China, bordering both Myanmar and Laos. It is a very popular holiday destination. Since October 1st is the Chinese national day, many people flew there for vacation. However, a sudden COVID outbreak stranded many tourists at the airport.
According to Twitter, because the stranded travellers at the airport had some dispute with the authority, some people in Hazmat suit came with rifles. Multiple conflicts were captured on video and posted on social media, here and here.
Puzzlingly, somehow new flights continued to arrive with tourists. The stranded travellers yelled to the new comers “Don’t come in!” The new comers went back to the plane and left.
A woman posted a video about super expensive hotel fees in Xishuangbanna, complained about the mismanagement of the government. Weibo users responded by mocking her not being able to afford the hotel fees and telling her that the government was too nice to her.
A community lockdown to the point of starvation in Taiyuan City , Capital of shan’xi Province. So residents are risking their lives to bypass the lockdown fence to escape.
SCMP reports: China’s Xinjiang autonomous region has suspended all passenger trains leaving the region in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Just a few days ago, RFA reports:
At least 13 Uyghurs have died as a result of poisoning from disinfectants sprayed in their homes last week used to fight a wave of coronavirus infections in a county in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, local residents and officials said.
The Uyghurs who died were all residents of Guma county (in Chinese, Pishan), Hotan (Hetian) prefecture. They are said to be among thousands of people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) reported to have been poisoned by disinfectants used to fight the COVID-19 virus, according to online comments on social media.
Many videos shared online show authorities spraying inner walls, furniture, bedding as well as inside refrigerators in homes in the region. Residents said planes with sprayers have flown over the area frequently since the lockdown.
Acting on an anonymous tip about the deaths in Guma, RFA confirmed that at least a dozen people from a village in the county have died of COVID disinfectant poisoning.
“I am told it is about 12 or 13 (who died),” said a local official in charge of overseeing 10 households in a village in Guma county.
“It happened on Sept. 20,” he said.
This video has been spread far on Wechat. It is an American young woman with perfect Chinese visiting a small town in China in Xinjiang province. No one wears masks, but they were talking about Biden and Putin. English subtitle is provided. (TikTok version and full video on her youtube channel).