Alibaba’s Jack Ma Cameo Appearance with Xi Jinping
Shanghai, China, Feb 17 (EFE).-
The founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and once the richest man in the country Jack Ma reappeared Monday at an official event alongside President Xi Jinping since 2020, when he had a high-profile clash with the authorities.
A video circulated by state television channel CCTV shows Ma applauding as Xi appeared and other members of the top brass of the Communist Party of China at the start of a meeting with executives from the technology sector, including those from firms such as Tencent, BYD, Huawei and DeepSeek.
Ma’s fall from grace dates back to late 2020, when he gave a controversial speech in which he was highly critical of Beijing’s strategy of minimising risks in the financial system and of traditional banks, which he said were still being run as “pawnshops.”
Days later, Chinese regulators forced the suspension of the IPO of Alibaba’s fintech subsidiary, Ant Group, operator of the popular payment platform Alipay.
The operation, which was derailed just 36 hours before it was due to take place, was to be the largest IPO in history: it would have brought in some $34.5 billion for the company and valued it at $314 billion.
Until then, Ma was the richest man in the country – he remains the eighth richest man with a fortune of $27.2 billion, 44 percent less than in 2021 – and he was not only the face of China’s private sector development but was considered practically untouchable for being a member of the CCP.
The businessman was not only known for his corporate activity or his many conferences but for his predilection for the cameras, having recorded his own kung-fu film and appeared on stage dressed as Michael Jackson during a company event.
After his clash with Beijing, Ma has kept a low profile, so much so that there was speculation that the authorities had banned him from leaving the country or even arrested him, rumors that were extinguished every few months with occasional appearances at events such as visits to schools.
The key, according to experts, came in early 2023, when Ant Group met one of Beijing’s main demands: to dissolve Ma’s voting power, which many analysts interpreted as the end of a regulatory campaign that had resulted in antitrust fines against Alibaba. This also happened to other prominent companies such as Tencent or Didi.
In March 2023, the businessman reappeared in China after reports that he had moved abroad, and experts anticipated that Beijing hoped that his return would serve to spur government efforts to regain the confidence of the private sector. EFE
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