Liu Ruopeng (; is a Chinese entrepreneur who founded the conglomerate
Kuang-Chi
Kuang-Chi Group (; ) is a Chinese company that develops and invests in metamaterial, telecommunication, aerospace, smart-city, AI and digital health technologies.
Kuang-Chi was founded in 2010 by five Chinese PhD scholars, led by Ruopeng Liu. ...
.
He is also a member of the
Communist Party of China
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
and a
National People's Congress
The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China.
With 2,9 ...
deputy.
Early life
Liu has a bachelor's degree in engineering from
Zhejiang University
Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a national public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigious C9 League and is selected into the n ...
.
He has a master's degree and a doctorate from
Duke University.
Career
While a PhD student at
Duke University,
Liu allegedly stole intellectual property from a
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...
-funded laboratory
and passed it to Chinese researchers, which eventually resulted in his expulsion from the
David R. Smith research group at the university.
Liu was investigated by the F.B.I., but ultimately was not charged with a crime. The incident is the subject of a book by
ProPublica
ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...
senior editor
Daniel Golden, ''
Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI, and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit America's Universities''.
In 2015, Liu bought a controlling stake in the loss making New Zealand company Martin Aircraft Company, makers of the yet to be commercially viable
Martin Jetpack
The Martin Jetpack was a single-person aircraft under development. Despite its name, it did not use a jet pack as such, but ducted fans for lift. Martin Aircraft Company of New Zealand (not related to Glenn L. Martin Company, the US company al ...
.
He is the president of the Shenzhen-based Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology and the chairman of Hong Kong-listed KuangChi Science.
Personal life
Liu Ruopeng lives in
Shenzhen
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
, China.
References
Living people
People from Shenzhen
Zhejiang University alumni
Duke University alumni
Chinese technology company founders
Chinese billionaires
Year of birth missing (living people)
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Businesspeople from Guangdong
1980s births
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