In August, the second trial of the divorce case of Chinese steel tycoon Du Shuanghuang was closed and the judgment was revealed. The No.1 Beijing Intermediate People’s Court rejected the appeal of his wife Song Yahong. By then, no one could claim the trophy of this case, which involves the assets of 50 billion yuan. Whether Du Shuanghua and his wife can divorce should wait for the final trial.
Du Shuanghua came from Hengshui, Hebei. He was the richest man in mainland China according to the 2008 Hurun Rich List. His assets mainly came from steel business, which he started in 1987. In 1993, he founded Hebei Jinghua Pipe Making Company. From 2001 he extended his business to Tangshan, Baotou, Laiwu, Guangzhou and other cities. In 2003, he coinvested to found Rizhao Steel Holdings Co., Ltd and took the board chairman of the company. In 2011, the sales revenue of Rizhao Steel reached over 40 billion yuan.
In September 2010, Song Yasong filed the lawsuit of divorce to the court in the Haidian District, Beijing. However, when the trial was started, Du Shuanghua’s lawyer offered a judgment made by the Intermediate Court of Hengshui, Hebei in 2001, showing that the couple had divorced ten years ago. For this, Song Yahong said she remained unknown about the “divorce”.
During the trial, Song Yahong and Du Shuanghua had verbal conflicts several times. Du Shuanghua wrote a long article, stating that Song Yahong’s appeal of divorcing and cutting apart his assets is not simply her own personal purpose; instead, an entire group was on her back and plotted the whole thing. However, Song Yahong stressed that she did this only for “justice”instead of the assets of Du Shuanghua.