Chinese commercial property conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group denied rumors on Monday morning regarding its chairman, Wang Jianlin, who reportedly has been detained by police.
The company said in a statement on its website that certain sources had intentionally spread malicious rumors about Wang over recent days. Such rumors began to appear in mid-August, which proved to be untrue after Wang led a field trip to Lanzhou, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Similar rumors continued to spread after some sources changed the time and date of their online postings and after some foreign media outlets on Sunday continued to fabricate the truth through malicious, slanderous claims, the company said.
Some WeChat accounts on Sunday said that Wang was detained in North China's Tianjin before he and his family were set to leave for the UK via a private jet. He was released after several hours of talks, but was banned from traveling abroad, the WeChat accounts claimed.
All rumors have stemmed from nowhere and have ulterior motives, we hope the public will not believe them, nor participate in spreading them, the company said.
Wanda firstly reported the matter to relevant government departments and also later reported it to the police, the company said, noting that it will adopt legal measures to secure its rights and interests and will pursue legal action against some media.
Wanda Hotel Development Co, a subsidiary of Wanda Group, saw its stocks fall around 7 percent on the Hong Kong bourse as of press time Monday.
Wanda Properties International Co's 2024 notes plunged 2.4 percent to $98.7as of press time in morning trading.
