Chinese gaming businessman Xu Bo has hit the headlines after he tried to claim 300 million yuan (US$42 million) from his former partner, who then said that he had fathered more than 300 children.
Born in 1977, Xu is a well-known figure in China’s gaming industry.
Despite dropping out of secondary school, he went on to create the massive hit Fantasy Westward Journey and founded Duoyi Network in 2006.
The company once achieved annual revenues of almost 2 billion yuan, with net profits exceeding a billion yuan (US$140 million) in 2017.
Xu met his former partner, Tang Jing, on a matchmaking website in 2009. At the time, Tang claimed to be a student.
The two lived together for 14 years but were never legally married.
They are disputing 300 million yuan which Xu claims Tang still owes him.
He alleges that between 2012 and 2018, he transferred 819 million yuan (US$115 million) to Tang.
She has returned 515 million yuan (US$72 million) but Xu claims 300 million yuan remains unpaid, prompting him to file a lawsuit in 2024.
However, on November 15, Tang took to social media and said that she and Xu had originally planned to build a large family together and that the substantial funds she received were mainly used to support this “big family of 300 children”.
“Over the past decade or so, the expenses required to maintain and care for this large family of 300 children have been enormous. The vast majority of the money I received went towards our daily living costs during that time,” she wrote.
She also claimed that the 300 children do not have household registration, or hukou in Chinese.
In response to netizens asking if the “300 children” was a typo, she replied: “No. If anything, the number might be under-reported, but it is definitely not exaggerated.”
She also said that in a trial, the court ruled in her favour and rejected Xu’s demand for 300 million yuan.
Tang also said that she is currently raising 11 children she had with Xu on her own and is in a legal battle for custody of their two daughters.
On November 16, Duoyi Network issued a statement saying that “the user” had been spreading false information online and urged the platform to take immediate action.
Xu has long been a controversial figure and has faced criticism for promoting misogynistic and polygamous rhetoric.
He once publicly recruited girlfriends on social media, explicitly stating his goal of “having at least 50 high-quality sons”.
He listed detailed partner selection criteria and even changed his online username to “Having More Children Solves Everything”.
Xu later claimed his net worth was 28 billion yuan (US$4 billion) and said he had already fathered 12 children with different women.
He repeatedly boasted that he was a “one-in-a-million elite male” and that he intended to raise all 50 sons to become societal elites, with at least 10 achieving top-tier success.
Xu has also drawn criticism as an employer.
For example, he required employees to give him “gratitude red envelopes” after one year of employment. Those who refused had to write self-criticisms.
He also encouraged workers to “voluntarily take a 10 per cent pay cut” and demanded they express gratitude for the opportunity.
Employees who resigned were required to reimburse the company cafeteria at a rate of 30 yuan (US$4) per meal.
The story has shocked and outraged China’s online community.
One person wrote: “Can anyone stop him? Just because he has wealth, does that mean he can raise children like livestock? Children are living beings, not bugs. Is he running some kind of human breeding experiment?”
divorce case that captivated mainland social media, Chinese business tycoon Zhao Bingxian, dubbed “China’s Warren Buffett”, was ordered to split his assets with his ex-wife, Lu Juan.
The final court ruling granted her around 536 million yuan (US$75 million). -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
