Midea’s billionaire founder He Xiangjian, kidnap victim and ‘model reformer’, builds a Fortune 500 company under veil of privacy
- He Xiangjian founded Midea with 5,000 yuan from a bottle-cap workshop in Foshan in 1968, the year Boeing introduced the 747 jumbo jet
- The reclusive tycoon, China’s sixth richest man with US$25 billion fortune, was rescued a day after a kidnap attempt
The entrepreneur only shared 26 words with his staff and customers on Midea’s official website. That is also about as many times his name was mentioned each year in its annual reports since Midea was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in September 2013, dedicated entirely to his non-compete pledges in private dealings with the listed entity.
His swift rescue became grist for newspapers headlines worldwide, and chatter in local coffee shops and markets. Mainland social media commentators described the event akin to a movie thriller. He’s ordeal, though brief, unwittingly puts him on the same list as other rich and more famous victims elsewhere, including those at Heineken, L’Oreal and Sears.
Since the kidnapping attempt, business friends have shared some anecdotes about the school dropout who started Midea with 5,000 yuan (US$707) from a bottle-cap workshop in Foshan in 1968, the year Mao Zedong was paramount leader, Martin Luther King was assassinated and the Boeing 747 jumbo jet was born.