BBC News: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was meant to be one of the biggest #MeToo trials China had ever seen, set to play out on the other side of the world in the US state of Minnesota.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The defendant was a 49-year-old billionaire who’s been called the “Jeff Bezos of China”. The accuser was a 25-year-old Chinese graduate student who said he sexually assaulted her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The civil trial would play out in an open court – nearly impossible in China, but the reality in this case, as the trial would take place in Hennepin County, Minnesota, where the offence allegedly happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in a stunning twist of events on the eve of their court battle, Richard Liu – better known to the Chinese as Liu Qiangdong – and Liu Jingyao have agreed on a settlement, averting trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two are not related, Liu being a common Chinese surname. The BBC is naming Liu Jingyao as she has previously publicly identified herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A statement released on Saturday night by lawyers for both parties said the incident that took place “resulted in a misunderstanding that has consumed substantial public attention and brought profound suffering to the parties and their families”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Today, the parties agreed to set aside their differences, and settle their legal dispute in order to avoid further pain and suffering caused by the lawsuit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The news has surprised many in China and dominated Chinese social media, where within hours related hashtags racked up hundreds of millions of views and comments on Weibo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Millions of Chinese were planning to closely watch the trial unfold in a legal system far more transparent than in China. Some experts believed that Liu Jingyao stood a better chance at winning in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, with a settlement made behind closed doors, the case is likely to prompt even more speculation and add to the uncertainty of China’s beleaguered MeToo movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BBC News: It was meant to be one of the biggest #MeToo trials China had ever seen, set to play out on the other side of the world in the US state of Minnesota. The defendant was a 49-year-old billionaire who’s been called the “Jeff Bezos of China”. The accuser was a 25-year-old Chinese graduate student who said he sexually assaulted her. The civil trial would play out in an open court – nearly impossible in China, but the reality in this case, as the trial would take place in Hennepin County, Minnesota, where the offence allegedly happened. But in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27678,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27676\/revisions\/27678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}