Chinese billionaire Jack Ma DISAPPEARS from his own reality show as Beijing begins an investigation into its “monopoly”
- Chinese technology billionaire Jack Ma disappeared from his own reality TV show
- It turns out that Alibaba Group is at the center of an anti-monopoly investigation
- The market regulator said it was reviewing Alibaba’s policy of ‘choosing one of the two’
The mystery involves the whereabouts of China’s richest man after he criticizes the regime.
Jack Ma has disappeared from his own talent show on TV and there has been no sign of him since late October.
The 56-year-old man is said to have earned about £ 35 billion from the creation of Alibaba, the Asian version of the Amazon, and was a poster boy for the communist regime.
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has disappeared from his own reality show as Beijing begins an investigation into its alleged monopoly. Ma in the photo above in a file image
But China’s rulers seemed to turn against him after he criticized state regulators and banks at a financial technology conference in October.
His profile was taken from the judges ‘page of Africa’s Business Heroes – a Dragons’ Den-style TV show for start-up entrepreneurs. The final happened without him and he also did not attend the promotional videos.
Weeks before the November final, Mr. 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.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma, pictured in an archive photo above, is China’s richest businessman and one of the country’s best-known figures
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.
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 managed to extend an olive branch by donating 2,000 fans to New York with his right arm Joe Tsai, which generated a thanks 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.
The authorities also announced an anti-monopoly investigation by Alibaba.
Beijing has a history of relentless action against its internal critics, and in March, a real estate tycoon disappeared after calling President Xi Jinping 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.