Sources: founder Richard Liu Qiangdong berated JD.com executives for poor performance and remains the undisputed decision maker despite quitting frontline roles
Ben Jiang / South China Morning Post :
Context & Ripple Effects
The arc here runs through a staged retreat: Xu Lei was profiled as heir apparent back when Liu first pulled out of the spotlight, then JD formally named its first president as Liu stepped back from day-to-day operations, and in 2022 [[a:977678|Liu handed the CEO title to Xu Lei alongside other Chinese tech tycoons exiting top roles during the crackdown]].
This report punctures the optics of that sequence: sources describe Liu berating executives over poor performance and remaining the undisputed decision maker — meaning the titles changed but the operating reality did not.
First-order effects
- JD.com's executive team now answers directly to a founder who holds no frontline role, making Xu Lei's CEO position effectively subordinate to Liu's judgment on performance.
- Liu's continued grip resolves nothing about succession — the heir-apparent framing around Xu Lei coexists with a founder who has not actually relinquished control.
Second-order effects
- Investors and partners reading JD's org chart will discount formal titles and price the company as founder-run, since the 2022 handover did not transfer real authority.
- Other Chinese tech firms that staged similar founder exits during the crackdown face the same credibility test: their announced retreats will be judged against whether the founder truly stepped away.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, China's tech-crackdown-era leadership changes function as reputational repositioning rather than governance change, leaving founder control intact beneath new management structures — a structural gap between corporate form and actual decision rights.
The trend: Chinese tech founders' public withdrawals from frontline roles increasingly look like spotlight management, with real decision power staying with the founder.