Two important businessmen in China – a person who started a technology company and an expert in investing – have been held by authorities, as per reports.
The head of a Chinese live-streaming website called DouYu has not been reachable for many weeks, and his company says they cannot get in touch with him.
However, another important person, who is often compared to China’s famous investor Warren Buffet, was announced by his company to have been taken into custody on Monday.
Zhao Bingxian’s company stated that he was helping the authorities with an investigation.
Wohua Pharmaceutical did not give any information about why their chairman, Mr. Zhao, was detained. They said that it had nothing to do with the company and they have not been officially notified about it.
Streaming platform Douyu has not made any public statements following the news of their founder Chen Shaojie being detained.
The Financial Times newspaper said that Mr. Chen was taken for investigation because he was allegedly involved in illegal activities like pornography and gambling on Douyu, according to anonymous sources.
They said they couldn’t reach him for several weeks starting in October, just like what Chinese media reported.
Douyu is a big website in China where people can watch videos live. Tencent, a huge internet company, owns a lot of the website.
Chinese authorities have detained more finance and tech industry leaders this year, which has caused worries that Beijing is taking stronger actions.
In February, one of the most well-known billionaire bankers in China was reported as missing by his company.
China Renaissance Holdings confirmed that Bao Fan, a famous person involved in technology deals, is helping the authorities with an investigation. Nobody has seen him publicly since then.
In late 2020, Jack Ma, who is a famous business leader from China and the founder of Alibaba, was not seen in public for three months. This happened because he made negative remarks about the authorities who oversee the market.