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The Chinese tech billionaire behind the Asian version of Amazon has reportedly not been seen in public for more than two months after falling victim to President Xi Jinping.
Jack Ma, one of China’s most successful and outspoken tycoons, slammed the country’s financial regulators and state-owned banks in an inflammatory speech in Shanghai in October.
He called for reform of a system that “stifled business innovation” and compared global banking regulations to a “club of the elderly”.
The speech angered the Chinese government, which viewed Ma’s criticism as an attack on the authority of the Communist Party, and led to its extraordinary crackdown on Ma’s business activities.
In November, Beijing officials “dressed” Ma and suspended his group Ant’s successful initial public offering of $ 37 billion at the direct order of President Xi, reports the Wall Street Journal.
They then advised Ma to stay in China before launching an anti-monopoly 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 cut operations.
Ma then mysteriously disappeared from her Dragons’ Den-style TV show Africa’s Business Heroes just before the November finale, while her photo was deleted from the show’s jury webpage.
A spokesperson for Alibaba told the Financial Times that Ma could no longer sit on the jury “ due to a scheduling conflict. ”
Jack Ma, one of China’s most successful entrepreneurs, criticized the country’s financial regulators and its state-owned banks in an inflammatory speech in Shanghai in late October. Ma is believed to have fouled President Xi Jinping personally
His calls for reform of a system that he said stifled innovation are believed to have angered government leaders who saw the speech as an attack on the Communist Party.
But weeks before the final, Ma tweeted that he “ couldn’t wait ” to meet with the candidates. There has since been no activity on the father-of-three’s Twitter account, who regularly saw several tweets per day.
Beijing has a history of ruthless actions against its internal critics, and in March, a real estate mogul disappeared after calling President Xi a “ clown ” for his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Friends of Ren Zhiqiang said they could not contact him, and six months later he was sentenced to 18 years in prison after “willingly and sincerely confessed” to various corruption crimes.
Xian Jianhua, a billionaire financier, was snatched from a hotel in Hong Kong in 2017 and taken to the mainland.
He would be placed under house arrest more than three years later, without any official information on his location.
The anti-monopoly investigation has caused Alibaba’s shares to fall by a quarter since their peak shortly after the October speech, wiping out more than $ 10 billion of Ma’s paper fortune.
He propelled Ma to third place on China’s richest people list, behind Pinduoduo general manager Colin Huang and Tencent Holdings’ Pony Ma Huateng.
Ma now has an estimated present net worth of $ 63.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Following the speech, Ma was “ dressed ” by officials in Beijing, and his company Ant Group’s $ 37 billion Initial Public Offering on Proof (IPO) was suspended, apparently by President Xi personally, according to the Wall Street Journal (pictured, singing a song at an event to mark Alibaba’s 20th anniversary in Hangzhou)
Xi Jinping speaks at conference with European leaders in Beijing on Wednesday
On Wednesday, shares of Nasdaq-listed Pinduoduo rose 7.77% in New York City, bringing its market capitalization to nearly $ 220 billion.
It marked the second day in a row that the five-year-old start-up surpassed the $ 200 billion mark in value.
Huang’s wealth in China is now behind only Zhong Shanshan, the chairman of bottled water giant Nongfu Spring who recently achieved a record-breaking $ 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 businessmen, Mr. Ma has increasingly clashed with the regime over his preferences for a more open and market-oriented economy. There is no indication to date that he has suffered physical harm.
Until recently, he had been a leader of China’s unique approach to generating wealth by unleashing market forces within a tightly controlled communist framework.
Alibaba Founder Jack Ma speaks at Alibaba 20th Anniversary Party at Hangzhou Olympic Center Stadium on September 10, 2019
Ma, who is married to 55-year-old Cathy Zhang (pictured), has disappeared from public view altogether – a sudden change all the more remarkable given her previously huge public profile.
The English teacher turned business mogul achieved rock star status and even played an invincible kung fu master in a 2017 star-studded film.
And even as tensions between the United States and China grew, Mr. Ma was able to extend an olive branch by donating 2,000 fans to New York City with his right-hand man Joe Tsai, which sparked a ‘ “ thank you ” from Donald Trump.
But Ma Ant’s payments company launch was sabotaged by regulators in what many saw as a retaliatory measure for his explosive speech in Shanghai in October.
Regulators have since met with executives at Ant and ordered Ant to improve its corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and habit of using its size to push its competitors away from the market.
In the process, Mr. Ma, who is married to Cathy Zhang, 55, completely disappeared from public view – a sudden change all the more remarkable given his previously huge public profile.
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