JD.com’s founder, Richard Liu, says robots will eventually replace the company’s roughly 700,000 delivery couriers, describing automation as an unavoidable shift for blue-collar work. The comments are presented as a rare instance of a major tech executive directly acknowledging job displacement rather than offering a hedged response. Multiple outlets report that Liu frames the change as “sooner or later,” without detailing a specific timeline for when replacements would occur. The reporting also highlights broader concerns in China about the impact of rapid technological adoption on gig-economy employment, with policymakers and analysts worried about the scale of potential displacement. The outlets describe JD.com as one of China’s largest e-commerce operators and note that its statement could influence how other firms and regulators think about automation and labor. Overall, the articles focus on the scale of JD.com’s delivery workforce and the founder’s public stance that automation will reduce the need for human couriers over time.