Guo Meimei sued by CEO of RCSC-affiliated firm

By Zhang Junmian
China.org.cn, December 16, 2011

Guo Meimei, the 20-year-old woman at the center of a scandal involving the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), was sued by Weng Tao, CEO of a company with ties to the RCSC.

Weng, chief executive of the China Red Cross Bo'ai Asset Management Ltd. Corp., said on his Sina Weibo (a Twitter-like service in China) on Tuesday that he had brought a slander suit against Guo at the Luohu District People's Court in Shenzhen.

In his complaint, Weng claimed that Guo should be prosecuted for her "criminal liabilities." Weng said that Guo had been defaming him on her microblog, claiming that he was "a wicked man with a chaotic private life," "a jobber," "a drug addict" and "a swindler." Weng said the allegations have damaged his reputation and brought severe trauma to his career and family, after the blog posts were forwarded by many of Guo's over 500,000 microblog followers and reported by mainstream media.

Guo stirred national outrage in June when she flaunted her wealth on her Weibo under the identity of general manager of Red Cross of the Commercial Sector – a shadowy company linked to the for-profit China Red Cross Bo'ai Asset Management Ltd. Corp. as well as the nonprofit charitable organization Red Cross Society of China.

The exchanges between Guo and Weng over the Internet began to escalate since this incident. Weng, on his microblog, described Guo as the girlfriend of Wang Jun, former director of the company. Wang was forced to resign after his alleged girlfriend was accused of using the charity money to support a luxury lifestyle. However, both Wang's wife and Guo herself denied the alleged affair.

Guo's resentment towards Weng intensified on Nov. 3, when Weng forwarded her comment on the controversial news story about a premature infant being dumped in the toilet by hospital nurses, mocking that it was "Guo Meimei gain." Furious, Guo retaliated by making a series of blog posts describing Weng's past, alleging that "Weng grabbed the company stakes by forcing Wang to leave, had extramarital love affairs, and was once in the jail." Weng responded instantly, reiterating that he had on hand evidences to prove the love affairs between Guo and Wang. The white-hot midnight Weibo exchanges went on for six hours until early next morning.

In an interview with Yangcheng Evening News on Thursday, Guo said she had not received a court summon. "I would countersue him if it's the case. I haven't been married yet, but who would marry me in the future since all Chinese men now think me as ‘Wang's mistress' by [Weng's] words," Guo said, adding that what Weng did was just for media attention.

The court confirmed that it received the bill of complaint Monday but did not say whether it has decided to file the case. Courts in China have seven days to consider whether to file a case after the bill of complaint is received.