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BEIJING – Chinese tech giant Jack Ma came out of a meeting at Trump Tower last year with a bold promise: his e-commerce giant, Alibaba, would help Donald Trump create a million US jobs.
But now, Ma has retracted, claiming that the escalation of the trade war has destroyed it.
"The promise was made on the basis of a friendly United States-China partnership and rational trade relations," the billionaire of celebrity said Wednesday. "This premise no longer exists today, so our promise can not be fulfilled."
Analysts say this retraction would have been a loss for the American staff – if Ma's offer had been serious in the first place.
"It's quite obvious that Ma's initial commitment was political theatricality, not a serious promise," said Arthur Kroeber, founding partner of Beijing's Gavekal Dragonomics consulting firm. "It was part of a Chinese effort to protect Trump early in his tenure."
In January 2017, Alibaba – Asia's largest online retailer, valued at $ 500 billion – announced that it would create one million jobs in the United States over the next five years.
[As Trump escalates trade war, China’s second-in-command is defiant]
This commitment followed Ma's high-level visit to Trump Tower in New York, where, according to Trump administration officials at the time, Trump and the Chinese businessman explained how Alibaba "could create 1 million jobs by allowing 1 million small US companies to sell goods to the Chinese and Asian market. "
Ma said he wanted to boost small businesses, especially in the Midwest, and help workers, like farmers and apparel manufacturers, connect to a larger market. (Alibaba has done similar work with rural traders in China.)
Immediately, it was clear that these would not be direct jobs – Alibaba employs about 66,000 full-time workers. On the contrary, Ma expects the company would allow US sellers to reach more Chinese consumers, fueling a surge in entrepreneurial employment.
Data on trade-related jobs tell another story.
US exports of goods and services to China are expected to rise by $ 206 billion to create an additional one million jobs, according to Commerce Department figures.
Last year this figure was $ 188 billion – and current US exports do not include Alibaba items, including educational services and aircraft, said Derek Scissors, specialist of the Chinese economy at the American Enterprise Institute of Washington.
"If all the tariffs were zero, we waited a long time for Ma to fulfill her commitment," said Scissors.
Trump had adopted Ma's promise as a quick victory for his administration. The president had been campaigning to "bring back" lost American jobs to the forces of globalization, and companies were scrambling to give him credit for their plans for expansion on American soil – even though plans had been developed years before that he looked for his job.
"Jack and I are going to do great things," Trump told reporters.
[Trump’s trade war brings unexpected boom for knockoff designer bags from China]
Observers from Chinese companies, however, raised their eyebrows.
"The Theater," Duncan Clark, author of "Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built," told the Washington Post.
"Who knows what he meant at the time or now," said Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder of J Capital Research in Beijing. "Alibaba is a very small employer in China, a lot less in the United States."
Alibaba has not responded to requests for comment.
Kroeber, the Chinese consultant, said Ma's statement was probably sending another message.
"He signals that he no longer believes that a constructive dialogue with the United States is possible," he said.
Beijing has pledged on Tuesday to respond immediately to Trump's next $ 200 billion tariff hike, starting on September 24, with rights on an additional $ 60 billion.
Trump said such retaliation would force him to tax $ 267 billion more on Chinese products, putting higher border taxes on everything the United States buys from China.
As the commercial battle intensified this month, Ma announced plans to retire next year from his role as president at Alibaba. He said the increasingly chaotic international business climate had nothing to do with it.
Read more:
China says it will immediately retaliate when Trump tariffs come into force
Trump has decided to impose tariffs on 200 billion dollars of Chinese products
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