The Chinese billionaire behind the Asian version of Amazon has not been seen in public for more than two months after falling out of favor with President Xi Jinping.
Jack Ma, one of China’s most successful and outspoken tycoons, criticized the country’s ‘pawnshop’ financial regulators and state-owned banks in an incendiary speech in Shanghai in October.
He called for reform of a system that ‘stifled business innovation’ and compared global banking regulations to a ‘seniors club’.
The speech angered the Chinese government, which saw Ma’s criticism as an attack on Communist Party authority, and led to an extraordinary crackdown on Ma’s business activities.
In November, officials in Beijing “covered up” Ma and suspended the successful initial public offering of $ 37 billion from his Ant Group by direct order from President Xi, reports the Wall Street Journal.
They then advised Ma to stay in China before launching an antitrust investigation into Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding on Christmas Eve, according to Bloomberg. Beijing has also ordered Ma’s financial technology company Ant Group to reduce its operations.
Ma then mysteriously disappeared from his Dragons’ Den-style TV show, Africa’s Business Heroes, just before the end of November, while his photo was erased from the show’s panel of judges.
An Alibaba spokesman told the Financial Times that Ma could no longer be on the panel of judges ‘due to an agenda conflict’.
Jack Ma, one of China’s most successful entrepreneurs, criticized the country’s financial regulators and state-owned banks in an incendiary speech in Shanghai in late October. Ma is believed to have fallen into conflict with President Xi Jinping personally
His calls for reform of a system he claimed to be stifling innovation are believed to have angered government leaders who viewed the speech as an attack on the Communist Party.
But weeks before the final, Ma tweeted that he ‘couldn’t wait’ to meet the contestants. There has been no activity since then on the Twitter account of the father of three, one who regularly had several tweets a day.
Beijing has a history of relentless action against its internal critics, and in March, a real estate tycoon disappeared after calling President Xi a “clown” for dealing with the coronavirus crisis.
Friends of Ren Zhiqiang said they were unable to contact him and six months later he was sentenced to 18 years in prison after ‘voluntarily and sincerely confessing’ several crimes of corruption.
Xian Jianhua, a billionaire financier, was kidnapped from a Hong Kong hotel in 2017 and taken to the mainland.
He reportedly remained under house arrest more than three years later, with no official information on his location.
The antimonopoly investigation has caused Alibaba’s stock to fall by a quarter since its peak just after the October speech, wiping out more than $ 10 billion of Ma’s fortune on paper.
This took Ma to third place on China’s list of the richest people, behind Pinduoduo’s chief executive Colin Huang and Tencent Holdings’ Pony Ma Huateng.
Ma now has an estimated net worth of $ 63.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index.
Following the speech, Ma was ‘downgraded’ by officials in Beijing and the $ 37 billion initial public offering (IPO) of his company Ant Group was suspended, allegedly by President Xi personally, according to the Wall Street Journal (pictured) , singing a song during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of Alibaba in Hangzhou)
Xi Jinping speaks during a conference with European leaders in Beijing on Wednesday
On Wednesday, shares of Nasdaq-listed Pinduoduo rose 7.77 percent in New York, bringing its market capitalization to nearly $ 220 billion.
It was the second day in a row that the five-year start-up exceeded the $ 200 billion mark in value.
Huang’s wealth in China is now second only to Zhong Shanshan, president of bottled water giant Nongfu Spring, which recently completed a record $ 87 billion Hong Kong IPO in September.
The fate of the country’s largest e-commerce, delivery and social media platforms has been in limbo since Beijing drafted a document to crack down on the ‘platform economy’ in early November.
Despite being one of China’s most successful entrepreneurs, Ma has been increasingly in conflict with the regime over his preferences for a more open and market-oriented economy. There is no suggestion so far that he has suffered any physical damage.
Until recently, he had been one of the protagonists of China’s unique approach to generating wealth by unleashing market forces within a tightly controlled communist structure.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma speaks during Alibaba’s 20th anniversary party at the Hangzhou Olympic Center Stadium on September 10, 2019
Ma, who is married to Cathy Zhang (photo), 55, has completely disappeared from public view – a sudden change all the more notable due to his huge previous public profile
The English teacher who became a business tycoon almost reached rock star status and even played an invincible kung fu master in a 2017 movie full of stars.
And even as tensions between the U.S. and China were deepening, Mr. Ma was able to extend an olive branch by donating 2,000 fans to New York with his right arm Joe Tsai, which generated a ‘thank you’ from Donald Trump .
But the launch of Ma, Ant’s payments firm, on the stock market, was hampered by regulators, in what many saw as retaliation for his explosive speech in Shanghai in October.
Since then, regulators have met with Ant executives and ordered Ant to improve its corporate governance, its regulatory compliance and its habit of using its size to drive competitors out of the market.
In the process, Mr. Ma, who is married to Cathy Zhang, 55, has completely disappeared from public view – a sudden change all the more remarkable due to his huge public profile previously.