Jack Ma, the co-founder and billionaire former president of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has resurfaced wherever it has been since late October 2020, when it stopped making public appearances amid government crackdown on technology companies.
For CNN, Ma was present in a video posted by Tianmu News, a subsidiary of the official state media apparatus of Zhenjiang Province, where Alibaba is headquartered in Hangzhou. Ma appeared via a video link to address attendees at an event launched by the rural teachers ’initiative of his philanthropic foundation; Tianmu wrote that it was filmed on Wednesday, local time. He also appeared briefly in a second video visiting a school near Hangzhou, though He reported to the Wall Street Journal it was not clear when it was filmed.
In November 2020, Chinese regulators dropped the hammer on Ant Group, a fintech subsidiary of the Alibaba Group, forcing it to halt an initial public offering that was expected to raise $ 37 billion and set a world record in share sales. It immediately removed about $ 68 billion from Alibaba’s market value. The Shanghai Stock Exchange (which operates through a non-profit organization controlled by the Chinese government) he told CNN in a statement at the time the IPO was postponed due to “major issues” meaning that Ant Group did not “comply with the conditions of publication or disclosure requirements” and the Chinese Foreign Ministry he characterized it as a matter of “self-regulation.” The company later received one “Rectification order” of the People’s Bank of China. Alibaba now faces one antitrust research even as he tries appease the regulators.
The month before the IPO was canceled, Ma criticized regulators for having a “pawnshop mentality” and called for a reduction in lending restrictions, according to the Associated press, operating directly against the Chinese government’s efforts to curb debt. His subsequent disappearance from public view was widely interpreted in the sense that the CEO was trying to shut up and let go of some of the heat he had acquired, with extensive additional speculation that he might have been arrested. Interpretations of the Chinese government’s apparent crackdown on Ma ranged from the with political motivation a billionaire who challenges the monopoly of the Communist Party of China’s power to an unexpected development in a push of years by Chinese financial watchdogs and competition to focus on powerful technology giants, as well as concern about the financial risks posed by Ant’s massive IPO.
According to the newspaper, Ma did not come out as if she were recording a video of hostages and sources told the newspaper that she had chosen to set aside her own will:
Mr Ma looked relaxed and said he could not meet with teachers this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. He said his commitments to education will not change and added that he hopes to see them in the future.
Another video embedded in the same Chinese media report showed Mr. Ma about what he said was a recent visit to a primary school in Tonglu County, near Hangzhou, where Ant and its subsidiary Alibaba are headquartered. . He did not specify when Mr. Ma, who was shown wearing a black cap and a padded winter jacket, visited the school.
…. Mr Ma’s recent appearance could help put an end to some of the unverified rumors about why he has been out of public view for months, said Jeffrey Towson, a former professor at the Guanghua School of Management. Beijing University … “It was a necessary answer to the question ‘Where is Jack Ma?’ “Professor Towson has such a high profile, his mere absence creates a lot of crazy ideas.”
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In addition, the newspaper reported that Alibaba and Alipay employees were celebrating Ma’s reappearance on internal boards.
According to the newspaper, the People’s Bank of China noted that it does not let go of Ma or its companies by publishing draft rules that say non-bank payment companies with a large share of the payments market, both alone and in concert with a competitor, “It could be considered to have market dominance and can be broken or faced with additional regulatory control.” Alipay, a subsidiary of Ant Group, processed about $ 17 trillion in digital payments, or just over half of the market, during the first half of 2020.