Billionaire issues denials of polygamy online posts

Chinese internet services company NetEase has been forced to issue a statement to clarify polygamy rumors about a former executive at the company.

NetEase said on Saturday that “although society allows existence of different values and opinions, we should stick to our bottom line on certain moral values.”

Former NetEase executive Xu Bo denied he was the owner of the baobaolaoshi account with more than 370,000 followers on China’s Twitter-like service Sina Weibo.

Xu worked at NetEase until 2006.

It was in 2017 that baobaolaoshi first posted an article encouraging polygamy and opposing women’s higher education. These posts went viral increasingly in 2018.

Some Chinese media speculated that the blogger might be Xu, a billionaire who allegedly owns 2.7 billion yuan ($390 million) in assets and is now president of duoyi.com video gaming website.

But in a statement Saturday night, Xu said that he was not the blogger and he respects women.

Meanwhile baobaolaoshi posted again on Saturday, amid mounting internet criticism of his views.

“I chose to have so many babies not because I am rich, but because I love my country,” he wrote.

To have many babies was “to extend our life and the fight for our country,” he posted.

Luo Ruixue, a member of the women’s rights group Women Awakening Network, told the Global Times on Sunday that some expressed support for d the blogger’s polygamy.

Women should be cautious about such a lifestyle, Luo said.