JD.com CEO denies paying ex-girlfriend millions

Liu Qiangdong and his ex-girlfriend Zhang Zetian [File photo]

JD.com, China's second largest online mall, released a statement yesterday denying that its CEO and founder, Liu Qiangdong, paid his ex-girlfriend 30 million yuan (US$4.82 million) after they broke up.

The statement also denied rumors that the couple broke up because of an investigation of a senior Chinese official.

But the statement itself became evidence that the two had split up.

"As a celebrity, Mr. Liu understood that the public wanted to know what was going on with him, but he hoped to have some privacy," the statement said.

Recently, rumors about whether or why the couple broke up circulated on the Internet after Liu deleted a blog he wrote last year expressing his loyalty to his girlfriend at the same time his girlfriend deleted all of her blogs.

Liu's ex-girlfriend, Zhang Zetian, 21, became an online sensation in 2009 after a photo showing her holding a cup of milk tea went viral on China's social media, earning her the nickname the "milk tea girl." The two met at Columbia University in 2013 when Zhang was studying there as an exchange student from Tsinghua University.