A Dangdang bookstore in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province Photo: VCG

The Dangdang farce continued on Tuesday, with the Beijing-based e-commerce platform and its ousted co-founder Li Guoqing exchanging their latest round of verbal attacks.

Caught in a prolonged dispute between its founders - a divorce between Li and his wife Yu Yu is currently at a standstill - the company said on its official Sina Weibo account on Tuesday that Li had again employed force, leading more than 20 people to break into the company early Tuesday morning, prizing open multiple safes and taking away documents.

The company has reported the incident to police and the issue is being dealt with, read the post, and normal customer purchases and the settlement of its supplies will not be affected. 

A statement on Li's Weibo account claiming he has taken over the company is fake news, Dangdang said.

Dangdang has filed a lawsuit with a court in Beijing's Chaoyang district, asking it to "revoke resolutions" in accordance with legal proceedings, according to the company, which did not reveal further details.

In a Weibo post on Tuesday, Li claimed that his primary goal was to ensure the normal operations of the company. 

Disputes among Dangdang shareholders are transitory, Li said, noting that the company, its employees and partners are not to be blamed. 

The e-commerce site, which built its fame as a major online bookstore before diversifying into other segments of online retailing, has over the years become increasingly negligible in the e-commerce arena where Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo have established their names as industry heavyweights. The divorce dispute, nevertheless, has put Dangdang back into the limelight.  

In late April, Li stormed into Dangdang's Beijing offices while Yu was away and took with him company seals.

Dangdang's Vice President Kan Mintong announced shortly after that Li had taken the seals after arriving with several bodyguards and that the company had reported the incident to police.

"All the members of the company's leadership group support Yu, not Li," Kan said. He suggested that Li should stay away from the company - the farther away the better.

The company also released a statement saying it will not recognize any contract, agreement, or document of a contractual nature that bears the company's stolen seals, and that the seals taken by Li have been invalidated.

Global Times