Midea Billionaire Rescued Safely From House Break-in, Five Arrested

Chinese billionaire He Xiangjian, founder of the Foshan-based electrical appliance manufacturer Midea Group, has been rescued safely after a house break-in on Sunday evening, police in the southern Chinese city of Foshan said Monday morning.

According to local police, they received a police report around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday that a private house in Junlan International Gold Life Village in Foshan had been broken into and the residents’ lives were under threat. Five suspects were arrested by 5 a.m. on Monday morning, while a man surnamed He was rescued. No one was injured during the arrest.

He’s 55-year-old son He Jianfeng, was reported by Chinese tech media TMTPost to have managed to free himself from the villa and swam across a river to call the police.

“Public security bureaus at district, city and provincial levels all paid close attention to the case after we received the report,” an official police statement said.

Midea Group confirmed the case on its official Weibo account on Monday morning and reposted the police statement, as well as giving thanks to police, media and all parties involved for their attention.

78-year-old entrepreneur He Xiangjian built Midea Group with a market value of 419 billion yuan ($59 billion) into one of the world’s largest appliance makers from a lid production workshop in the town of Beijiao in Guangdong in 1968. The 2020 Hurun Global Rich List ranked him as the world’s 41st richest person with an estimated wealth of 182 billion yuan ($35.78 billion). Hu stepped down as Midea’s chairman in 2012, but still remained as the controlling shareholder with a 31.6 percent stake in the company.

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The Shenzhen-listed company’s shares fell 3.6 percent at the end of Monday’s trading.