Shocking! No More Billionaires in China: DeepSeek Founder Liang Wenfeng Rumored to Have Fled

Rumors have been spreading that DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has immigrated. At 8 a.m. on October 15th, a sudden system failure knocked out DeepSeek's website, app, and API services. The v4 pro API, the v4.1 flash API, and chat service all went down. Users received just one message, server temporarily unavailable. DeepSeek is down became a trending topic on Weibo, briefly overtaking every other social news story that day. All services were restored by 1pm. The nearly five-hour outage exposed problems at DeepSeek and deeper weaknesses in China's domestic AI infrastructure. As DeepSeek's servers went down, the question of what happened to Liang Wenfeng also trended on Weibo. Online speculation ranged from him fleeing the country to being arrested. The rumors grew out of talk of a technical breakthrough at DeepSeek, spawning various theories about external security threats. One user wrote on X, even a patriotic entrepreneur has left. My faith is shattered. He used to promote Chinese AI models every day, and now he's the first to move abroad. Tell me in the comments how much longer this hype around Chinese AI can last. Another user wrote, DeepSeek boss Liang Wenfeng made it to the United States, escaping Chairman Xi's efforts to stop him. Liang is the smartest entrepreneur of his generation, much smarter than older entrepreneurs like Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Liang's rapid rise in wealth has drawn global attention. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, updated in July 2026, put his net worth at about 26 billion US dollars. He ranked 63rd worldwide and was the wealthiest founder on the list whose business focused purely on large AI model. After Anta CEO Ding Shuzhun's successful escape, other Chinese entrepreneurs may still be living in fear. Online rumors said Trip.com co-founder James Liang was barred from leaving China and arrested after trying to cross the border illegally through a back route. Some posts denied his arrest. No one denied the exit ban, making the restriction appear credible. Much of the attention centers on whether Liang Wenfeng has emigrated or whether billionaires are fleeing. The deeper issue is why rumors like these resonate so quickly across the internet. The concern goes beyond entrepreneurs' private lives. People want to understand what risks these business owners see. Even those worth billions or tens of billions of U.S. dollars are rushing to move assets abroad, establish family trusts, and secure residency or citizenship elsewhere. For ordinary families, a home is an asset. For the ultra-wealthy, the system they live under is an asset too. High taxes alone may not drive an entrepreneur away. Unpredictable rules can leave them deeply uneasy. Some wealthy Chinese individuals now face tax reviews of their overseas trust income and pressure to pay back taxes. Tax authorities clarified reporting requirements for overseas trust income in July. Eligible Chinese tax residents must report that income and pay the taxes due by October 22. Taxable offshore trust earnings could face a 20 percent personal income tax rate. For years, wealthy Chinese business owners followed a familiar strategy. Build a company at home, list it abroad, and place billions of U.S. dollars in offshore trusts beyond the tax authority's reach. That protection is now being dismantled. Bloomberg reported on October 20 that eight of the world's 500 richest people, along with their beneficiaries, could be significantly affected by the Chinese Communist Party's measure. Most of the wealth of the eight listed by Bloomberg comes from companies traded in Hong Kong or the United States. Their trusts are based in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. They include NetEase founder Ding Lei, with about 37 billion U.S. dollars in overseas assets, Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang, with 29 billion U.S. dollars, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun, Hansoh Pharmaceutical founder Zhong Huijuan, the family of China Hongqiao's Zhang Bo, Pop Mart founder Wang Ning, SITC international founder Yang Xiaopeng, and Anta Sports founder Ding Shuzhun. These billionaires use offshore trusts to hold shares in listed companies whose main operations are in China. As of October 16, the assets they held through those trusts totaled about $140.2 billion. Beijing has not publicly named anyone. It remains unclear whether these eight billionaires owe the tax or have already been asked to pay. A China Hongqiao spokesperson called any link between CEO Zhang Bo and the tax changes baseless and misleading. The other seven companies have remained silent. The measure comes under CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping's Common Prosperity Campaign. The same slogan accompanied crackdowns on tech giants and cuts to bank employees' pay in previous years. A prolonged housing slump has strained local finances. As local governments seek more revenue, wealthy families' overseas assets have become another target. A partner at Inns & Co. Hong Kong, Hu Lejian, said this round of tax plundering hits trusts holding inherited family wealth harder. People familiar with the matter also said authorities began restricting IPOs earlier this year by companies registered abroad that might qualify for tax benefits. Wealth advisors and lawyers are reviewing old records for wealthy families. They're calculating earnings from the day assets first entered a trust. Staff at tax advisory firm BDO say this is a major undertaking for families with substantial wealth. Some are simplifying their overseas finances. Others are breaking up and restructuring their holdings. The number of new family offices has also risen noticeably this year. Bai Lu, a partner at Singapore law firm Denton's Rodic, said many clients were initially caught off guard. They soon began preparing to pay, carefully checking which expenses were deductible. They know Beijing can calculate their tax bills from public IPO filings and acquisition announcements. Bai said no one can escape. No one knows how much revenue the tax will bring Beijing. The billionaires may still negotiate what they pay. Private entrepreneurs, once celebrated by the government, are now being tapped to help cover its budget shortfalls. Some are already under financial pressure. People familiar with the matter said entrepreneurs behind Haidilao and Kan Jun, the parent company of job platform Boss Zhipin, have sold hundreds of millions of US dollars in shares to raise money for taxes. Other reports said Xu Ping, the wife of hotpot chain Haidilao founder Zhang Yong, suddenly sold 259 million Haidilao shares in September. She raised HK$2.75 billion, reportedly to pay back taxes. When Haidilao filed its listing documents with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2018, Zhang Yong and Xu Ping were already listed as Singaporean citizens. They had gained citizenship earlier and moved assets abroad. The listed company was registered in the Cayman Islands, with the Singapore company in between controlling its hotpot restaurants in mainland China. Zhang Yong and his wife topped the Forbes Singapore Rich List in 2019, with combined assets of $13.8 billion. Widespread coverage described them as earning money from Chinese customers while becoming Singapore's richest. Only then did many Chinese internet users realize that the founder of the most famous Chinese hotpot chain was no longer a Chinese citizen. Liang Wenfeng's absence from Bloomberg's list of eight, despite ranking among the world's 500 richest, does not mean he's unaffected. DeepSeek is not publicly traded. Its ownership structure, offshore holdings, family trusts, and ultimate ownership of its wealth are not fully disclosed, as they would be for a company listed in Hong Kong or the United States. Even if his wealth puts him among the world's richest, outsiders may not know exactly how his assets are arranged. The concern over offshore trust taxation goes beyond the 20% rate. The stronger signal is that as the housing market collapses and local government debt mounts, Chinese Communist Party authorities are stepping up scrutiny of wealthy individuals' overseas assets. Over the past several decades, some descendants of senior communist officials, privileged bureaucrats, and private business leaders have accumulated enormous wealth. They have used heavy borrowing, government reliance on land sales, financial deals, and political connections. For the CCP, however, any private capital beyond its control is a potential political threat. A legal scholar living in Australia named Yuan Hongbing says Xi Jinping's unease stems from entrepreneurs seeking political influence. In Yuan's view, every top entrepreneur in China has tried to use economic power to gain a political voice. Xi cannot tolerate that. Incarcerated real estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang is a clear example. A video of Chinese business magnate Pan Shiyi speaking at a private gathering appeared on Weibo on September 7 and spread widely on X. The Soho China founder has lived mainly in the United States in recent years. Standing at a dining table, he discussed the sensitive subject of his friend Ren Zhiqiang's arrest. Pan did not name his friend. The details of his remarks, however, indicated he meant Ren, the Chinese property tycoon whose father was a senior communist official. An essay bearing Ren Zhiqiang's name circulated online in 2020. It criticized the ruling CCP's tight controls on free speech, saying they had worsened the coronavirus outbreak. It called party leader Xi Jinping a power-hungry clown. It said what stands there is not an emperor showing off his new clothes, but a clown who insists on being emperor even with all his clothes stripped off. The essay also said Xi made no effort to hide his ambition to become emperor or his determination to destroy anyone who stood in his way. Ren disappeared in March that year after being taken away by the party's Beijing Disciplinary Commission. His eldest son and secretary were also detained by the commission. Authorities announced an investigation in April. On September 22nd, a court sentenced him to 18 years in prison on four charges, including embezzlement and bribery. Ren Zhiqiang was a prominent property developer, known as Ren the Cannon for speaking so bluntly. Starting in 2016, he said most property industry profits actually flow to the communist government, while developers and ordinary homebuyers bore the costs. He once said, real estate is the communist government's chamber pot. It pulls it out when it needs to pee, then kicks it aside when it's done. He criticized economic controls for treating symptoms rather than the root causes. In February 2016, Ren Zhiqiang publicly challenged the official demand that party and government media bear the party's surname, meaning they must be loyal to the party. He wrote on Weibo, When did the people's government become the party's government? They spend taxpayers' money, but instead of serving the people, they've become tools controlled by a small group. Ren Zhiqiang's outspokenness made his case symbolic, beyond his fame as a developer. Entrepreneurs work on the front lines of the market. They often spot gaps between regulations and reality before government agencies do. New technologies and industries emerge, while old management practices and regulatory systems may fail to keep up. As their companies grow, entrepreneurs want more stable, transparent rules. They also want a voice in shaping public policy. In a highly centralized political system, however, any social influence that develops independently of those in power is seen as a threat. Many of China's more prominent business owners are leaving. Among wealthy Chinese entrepreneurs, developer Pan Shiyi has shown a sharp sense of risk and benefited from good timing. For him, freedom means keeping both his money and his personal life beyond others' control. He has moved himself and his wealth abroad and appears to have no plans to return. Back in 2005, he transferred his shares to his wife, Zhang Xin, at no cost. She then placed a combined 94.78% stake into an irrevocable trust in the Cayman Islands. They gradually sold assets and properties in China, shifted to U.S. real estate, and bought five plots of land in New York. After his friend Ren Zhiqiang received an 18-year sentence in 2020, Pan saw the danger and moved quickly to negotiate the sale of his core properties to Blackstone. Chinese authorities blocked the deal. Many wealthy Chinese have made similar choices. Chen Tianqiao and Duan Yongping are prominent examples of entrepreneurs who moved their core businesses out of mainland China. Chen, the founder of Shanda, who became China's richest man at age 31, sold the company for tens of billions of yuan, moved to the U.S., and bought forest land larger than Singapore. Duan, who helped build BBK, Oppo, and Vivo, divided his shareholdings and went abroad with 130 billion yuan, or roughly 18 billion U.S. dollars. These entrepreneurs tend to be highly intelligent, quick to spot market shifts, and effective at getting things done. They understand globalization, finance, and technological innovation. They have little respect for bureaucrats who speak in official slogans and try to direct businesses without understanding economics. That gap makes it hard for them to feel real deference toward those officials. As their companies reach a certain size, entrepreneurs generally develop two increasingly strong demands. First, they want clear rules. They seek a stable, transparent, predictable business environment. They want market forces to determine their company's futures, rather than sudden administrative decisions. They also want every business to follow the same rules, instead of depending on individual agencies' interpretations and discretion. Second, they want a voice. When a company affects tens of thousands of employees, millions of users, or an entire supply chain, its leaders naturally want input into public policy. They may not seek political power directly, but they often want to help shape rules through policy proposals, industry groups, public debate, and media platforms. That helps protect their interests and those of their industry. Those demands, however, often run into a fundamental deadlock with a highly centralized political system. Entrepreneurship depends on taking risks and creating new things. When the brightest people learn to stay silent, and the most creative focus on protecting themselves instead of innovating and expanding, the whole economy loses energy. China's economy risks stagnating as voices fall silent. The damage reaches beyond individual entrepreneurs and reflects the way the system operates.