One of the world’s most prominent tech billionaires, founder of JD.com (the Chinese equivalent of Amazon) Richard Liu, is to face a rape trial in an American courtroom.
Liu Jingyao alleges the entrepreneur followed her back to her Minneapolis apartment and raped her after a 2018 dinner for Chinese executives that she attended as a University of Minnesota volunteer, according to court filings.
He has denied the allegations, insisting that the sex was consensual.
The trial is significant in that accusations against China’s elite very rarely make it to trial.
In China, the Communist Party has repeatedly quashed the country’s small but spirited #MeToo movement.