JD’s shakeup is the welcome kind in Chinese tech

JD Health International

06/09/2021 08:56

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are their own.)
    HONG KONG, Sept 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - JD.com  JD.O 
 9618.HK  is getting its house in order. The $126 billion
e-commerce company on Monday announced the appointments of
leaders for JD.com, JD Retail and JD Health International
 6618.HK . Boss Richard Liu, who remains chairman and chief
executive, will work on the company’s long-term strategies and
spend time mentoring younger management, while “contributing to
the revitalization of rural areas.”  
    It follows the renunciation of duties by technology bosses
at Pinduoduo  PDD.O  and ByteDance  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2N704U. When Pinduoduo
founder Colin Huang unexpectedly stepped down  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2LF0J7 from
his role as chairman in March to pursue food and life sciences
research, his voting rights in the $128 billion group also fell.
Liu’s 77% of aggregate voting power as of February appears
unchanged for now.  
    Developments at JD look more like succession planning amid
increasing regulatory scrutiny of China’s biggest technology
companies. JD’s Hong Kong-listed shares barely moved on this
news plus a $513 million acquisition by its property unit. That
may be as good a sign as any of the right kind of Chinese tech
shakeup. (By Sharon Lam) 
    On Twitter http://twitter.com/breakingviews
    
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 (Editing by Una Galani and Katrina Hamlin)
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