JD.com Billionaire-CEO Richard Liu Quits Due To Beijing Pressure

Ultra-wealthy Liu Qiangdong, also known as Richard Liu, is stepping back from his role as chief executive of JD.com, China's Amazon-like e-commerce giant, Weilun Soon reported for Business Insider.

Photo Insert: Embattled JD.com CEO Richard Liu

JD.com said Liu has left his role as CEO, but that he remains chairman of the company's board. Liu founded JD.com in 1998 — four years after Jeff Bezos founded Amazon — and has a net worth of $13.3 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

He joins a growing list of founder-CEOs quitting public leadership roles amid a sweeping crackdown by China on the technology sector.

Liu has generally stayed out of the public eye since he was accused by a student of rape in 2018. US prosecutors dropped charges against him, citing insufficient evidence. The student, Liu Jingyao, filed a civil claim for damages in the US against Liu in 2019.

In 2020, Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok-owner ByteDance, stepped down as CEO and subsequently from his chairman role. In 2021, Su Hua, founder of TikTok's main rival Kuaishou, and Colin Huang, founder of popular e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, all gave up their roles as CEO. In 2019, Jack Ma stepped down as chairman of JD.com's main rival Alibaba.

All of them rank among the richest people on the planet, per Bloomberg, but even their wealth has not staved off scrutiny by Beijing. None of the departing founders has publicly cited government pressure as reasons for leaving or changing roles, but their departures all coincide with increasingly aggressive regulation and threats of breakups.

"These founders may say that they're leaving for personal reasons, but it's too much of a coincidence," said Naubahar Sharif, professor at the Hong Kong University of Technology and Science who researches on China's technology policies.

"The predominant driver is politics, and now these old guards need to make way for their successors."

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