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The billionaire Alibaba founder resurfaced as he spoke to 100 rural teachers via a video call, three months after his last public appearance in October, pushing the shares of the e-commerce company up by more than 8% in Hong Kong.
A recording of the call was first posted on a government-backed news portal in Zhejiang, the eastern province where Alibaba is headquartered, and the video has been verified by an Alibaba spokesperson. .
Speculation revolved around Ma’s whereabouts after media reported in December that he skipped the recording of a TV show he created. Ma, known for his love of the limelight, has seen his e-commerce empire Alibaba and fintech giant Ant Group increasingly come under the crosshairs of Chinese authorities in recent months.
My latest appeared publicly at a conference where he lambasted China’s financial regulatory system in front of a hall of senior officials. His controversial remark, according to reports, prompted the Chinese regulator to abruptly halt Ant’s initial public offering, which would have been the biggest public share sale ever.
Ant has since worked on corporate restructuring and regulatory compliance under government guidance. Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce platform, also came under scrutiny when market regulators launched an investigation into its alleged monopoly practices.
Some argue that the recent crackdown on Jack Ma’s internet empire is a sign of Beijing’s growing unease with the super-rich energy brokers and the country’s private sector.
“Today, Alibaba and its rival, Tencent, control more personal data and are more intimately involved in daily life in China than Google, Facebook and other American tech titans in the United States. And just like their American counterparts, the Chinese giants intimidate small competitors and kill innovation, ”Li Yuan wrote for The New York Times.
“You don’t have to be a member of the Communist Party to see reasons for holding them back.”
In the 50-second clip, Ma is seen speaking directly into the camera against what appear to be decorative paintings depicting a typical Zhejiang water town. An art history book is shown in the middle of a stack of books, next to a vase of fresh flowers and a ceramic figurine of a sturdy, reclining man who looks relaxed and happy.
Ma spoke to the 100 teachers who have received the Jack Ma Rural Teachers Award, which was established by the Jack Ma Foundation to identify outstanding rural teachers each year. It is not known where Ma was speaking from, but the video shows him briefly visiting a rural boarding school in Zhejiang on January 10. The awards ceremony has been moved online this year due to the pandemic, Ma told the winners.
When Ma announced his retirement plan, he pledged to go back to his teaching roots and devote more time to educational philanthropy, though the founder still wields considerable influence over Alibaba by retaining a seat in the powerful Alibaba partnership. The legendary billionaire began his career as an English teacher in Hangzhou, and on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, he calls himself “the ambassador of rural teachers.”
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