RMB 30 Million Betrothal Gift Becomes a Lawsuit: Justin Sun Sues Jing Tian and Her Parents, Case Accepted by Court
TRON founder Justin Sun has sued actress Jing Tian and her parents to recover more than RMB 30 million that he describes as a betrothal gift. Sun's attorney Zhang Qihuai confirmed publicly on August 27 that a court has accepted the case and that the plaintiff has applied for asset preservation. Jing's side has filed a jurisdictional objection; the case has not yet entered substantive trial and no judgment has been issued.
At 6:53 p.m. on August 27, Zhang Qihuai, acting as Sun's attorney, posted a statement of case facts on Weibo, saying that Sun had filed a civil lawsuit against "Jing and her parents" over a property dispute, with the amount in controversy exceeding RMB 30 million, and that the case had been lawfully accepted. The statement said the plaintiff had applied to the court for asset preservation.
Zhang later confirmed to media that the defendant referred to as "Jing" is actress Jing Tian. He said Sun and Jing had been in a relationship and had discussed marriage, and that the two broke up in the first half of 2026. He said the more than RMB 30 million was a betrothal gift paid by Sun to Jing, which Sun is seeking to have returned. The legal nature of the payment, and whether it must be returned, remain for the court to determine.
On procedure, Zhang said that after the case was accepted, Jing's side filed a jurisdictional objection in accordance with the law, and that the objection is still under the court's review. The case has not yet entered the substantive trial stage, and there is no final judgment. The dispute is therefore still at the stage of deciding which court will hear it, and the property claims themselves have not been tried.
At 7:09 p.m. the same evening, Jing Tian's studio issued a solemn statement in response: "Reputation is an artist's life, and also an artist's vulnerability. But we have the courage to say no to extortionate conduct that holds an artist's reputation hostage. Upholding our faith in the law and in due legal process, we have no intention of occupying public resources; everything is left to the court. Apart from updates on subsequent rights-protection actions, we will not respond to other questions."
On the morning of August 28, Jing Tian herself posted on Weibo that she "has never, does not now, and will never sell her love for money, still less her soul," saying that she still believes in love, in the law, and in ultimate justice and fairness, and that "time will prove everything."
Since May of this year, various online rumors involving Jing Tian's relationships and money disputes have circulated. On May 22, her studio issued a statement calling the content "false rumors and malicious fabrication," saying it had commissioned lawyers to complete evidence collection and would firmly pursue the legal liability of those spreading the fabrications. None of those rumors has been verified, nor confirmed by any judicial authority.
Justin Sun was born in 1990 in Xining, Qinghai, and grew up in Guangdong. In 2007 he won first prize in China's New Concept Writing Competition. He went on to study history at Peking University, graduating first in his class, and then earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2013 he joined blockchain company Ripple Labs, becoming its chief representative for Greater China the following year, while also founding the technology company Raybo and the voice-based social app Peiwo in China. In 2015 he entered Hupan University, the entrepreneurs' school founded by Alibaba's Jack Ma, as the only member born after 1990 in its first class.
In 2017 Sun founded the blockchain platform TRON and issued its token TRX; the next year he acquired file-sharing company BitTorrent and became its chief executive, growing into one of the world's best-known and most controversial cryptocurrency figures, listed by Forbes among the world's billionaires. Known for publicity-grabbing moves, he bid about $4.57 million in 2019 for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett, served from 2021 as Grenada's ambassador to the World Trade Organization, and in 2024 bought heavily into World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture linked to the Trump family, an investment Forbes put at about $75 million.
His dealings with U.S. regulators have been stormy. In March 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Sun and his companies, alleging unregistered offers and sales of the crypto assets TRX and BTT and manipulation of TRX trading volume through wash trading. In November 2024, he bought Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana artwork "Comedian" at Sotheby's in New York for about $6.2 million, and later ate the banana in public in Hong Kong. On August 3, 2025, he flew to the edge of space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, on a seat he had won at auction in 2021 with a $28 million bid.
Jing Tian was born in 1988 in Xi'an, Shaanxi, and graduated from the Beijing Film Academy's acting program. She entered show business in 2006 with her debut music EP "Who Are You," and drew wider attention in 2011 with the film "The Warring States," followed by leading roles in "Special ID," "Police Story 2013" and "From Vegas to Macau." In 2016 she starred in Zhang Yimou's "The Great Wall" as Commander Lin Mae, and went on to appear in the Hollywood productions "Kong: Skull Island" (2017) and "Pacific Rim Uprising" (2018), making her one of the few Chinese actresses to play major roles in Hollywood blockbusters.
Early in her career, a steady run of big productions that underperformed critically led parts of the Chinese media to label her a "resource-backed" star. The turning point came in 2021, when the fantasy drama "Rattan," in which she played the title role, won both critical praise and a wide audience, in what is widely seen as the work that remade her reputation. She has since starred in dramas including "The Legend of Zhuohua" and "Wonderland of Love"; a trailer for her new drama "Long Gu Fen Xiang" was released recently.
Related: Trailer Released for Jing Tian's New Drama 'Long Gu Fen Xiang'
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：孙宇晨。（图片来源：MelfarraTron／Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0）
