A 13-year-old boy in China has claimed that he is the owner of a tech company and responsible for paying the salaries of six employees working under him, according to a report by South China Morning Post (SCMP).
A video of the incident where the boy is making the claims to his teacher has gone viral on the social media platforms of the country. On Weibo (China’s Twitter-like platform), the video has garnered 26 million views and 10 million on Douyin.
In the video, the teacher at a secondary school in southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality assigned a homework exercise to students, asking them to write a summary about a classmate they see as accomplished and successful.
To the teacher’s surprise, most students in the class chose a classmate they said already was running a company. “I heard that one of you is a boss who owns a company. Who is that?,” the teacher can be heard asking in the video.
After the students pointed out, the teacher turned towards a student named Chen and asks him, “It’s you, Boss Chen. What kind of business is your company engaged in?”
“How outstanding you are!” replied the teacher.
As soon as the video went viral, Chinese netizens started commenting on the boy’s supposed feat. One suggested that Chen could even apply for the Guinness World Record as the world’s youngest boss.
Meanwhile, one joked, “When his customer asks his employees, ‘Where is your boss?’, his employees must reply, ‘He will come after school is over at 5pm’.”
“This boss looks kind. I am wondering if his company has any vacancies as I’d like to apply for a job there,” quipped another.
School investigating the claims
Although Chen is making headlines, some netizens said his claims were contradictory as the legal requirement in China mandated that the head of any business must be at least 18 years of age.
The school administration commented on the situation and said they were currently probing the boy’s claims.
“He is definitely not the legal head of a company, and it’s impossible for him to be that. We are still trying to get more details,” one of the school spokespersons was quoted as saying by Red Star News.
(With inputs from agencies)
