CZ explains that Chen is actually a coworker he met through a mutual friend.
CZ responded to criticism in a blog post published by Binance on Thursday.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO of Binance, responded to allegations that the company is a “criminal entity” and “secretly [belongs] in the pocket of the Chinese government.”
CZ responded to criticism in a blog post published by Binance on Thursday. The post was inspired by a Twitter exchange between CZ and a former writer for the Washington Post, who questioned, “While I have you here, who’s Guangying Chen?”
Who is Guangying Chen?
He said that the query was in response to rumors that his Chinese buddy Guangying Chen secretly owns both Bijie Tech (a firm he formed in 2015) and Binance. CZ, however, explains that Chen is actually a coworker he met through a mutual friend and hired to “manage the back office” at Bijie Tech before re-hiring her at Binance.
He goes on to say that, because she was one of the few to remain in China at the outset, conspiracy theorists have begun to link her to the firms as a secret owner. According to CZ, these claims were spread by an “old campaign that a competitor launched via an anonymous microsite.”
CZ further stated:
“The inference is that because we have ethnically Chinese employees, and perhaps because I am ethnically Chinese, we are secretly in the pocket of the Chinese government.”
CZ also vehemently refuted rumors that his firm had connections to the Chinese government and went so far as to share some of his own negative experiences doing business in China. According to CZ, Binance is “an easy target for special interests, media, and even policymakers that hate our industry” since he and a few other workers are Chinese.