Jack Ma is a trend in networks for his silence 0:31
(CNN) -
Billionaire Jack Ma is a rare figure in China: a charismatic entrepreneur who speaks his mind and pushes the limits.
That free attitude made the Alibaba co-founder famous inside and outside his home country.
But he also appears to be putting his business empire, and Ma himself, at enormous risk.
The problem started in late October after Ma criticized China's regulators at a conference in Shanghai.
As Ma's fintech company Ant Group prepared for the world's largest initial public offering (IPO), it accused authorities of stifling innovation and criticized the country's banks for having a 'house of money' mentality. endeavor".
Beijing's retaliation was swift.
Within days, regulators canceled the IPO, but not before calling Ma and Ant executives for a meeting.
In the weeks since then, regulators ordered Ant to restructure large sectors of the company.
They even extended their scrutiny to Alibaba, which is now the subject of an antitrust investigation.
Meanwhile, Ma has not been seen in public since he gave his speech in Shanghai, a notable absence for a man who normally has no problems with the limelight and whose companies now face their biggest threat in years.
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"I think there is a general message that the party is really sending, and that is that tech entrepreneurs can be the most glamorous and most publicly favorable face that China is showing to the world," said Rana Mitter, professor of modern Chinese history and politics. at the University of Oxford.
"But there is not a single individual, no larger company than the Chinese Communist Party."
LOOK: Where is Jack Ma?
The tech mogul has been silent for months as China puts pressure on his businesses
Many observers from China point out that Ma is very likely in hiding as authorities increase pressure on his business, having caught the hint of speaking out of place.
But it is also no different from Beijing to impose severe punishment on prominent Chinese figures who clash with the interests of the Communist Party.
Superstar actress Fan Bingbing, for example, abruptly disappeared from the public eye in 2018 before reappearing a year later to apologize for a tax evasion scandal.
And real estate mogul Ren Zhiqiang was missing for several months last year after he allegedly criticized President Xi Jinping's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
She was eventually jailed for 18 years on corruption charges.
A huge celebrity
Ma, a former English teacher with humble origins, has long epitomized China's economic prosperity and business courage.
He turned Alibaba into a $ 500 billion tech empire and amassed a personal fortune of about $ 50 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
As his companies grew, Ma became the friendly face of China's economic rise.
He frequently met with heads of state (Ma has had lunch with former President Barack Obama and taken selfies with former UK Prime Minister David Cameron) and last year even donated supplies to contain COVID-19 across the world.
Ma's style as an executive at Alibaba was also blatantly flamboyant - he once sang the 1950s classic "Unchained Melody" on stage at a company conference, often dressed up in costumes and appeared at events with celebrities like David. Beckham and Nicole Kidman.
Jack Ma performs at Alibaba's 20th Anniversary Celebration in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China in 2019.
On one level, the Chinese authorities liked that Ma represented a glamorous and powerful version of China "because one of the things that the Chinese Communist Party has found almost impossible to do is create soft power in the world," Mitter said, the Oxford Professor.
The government has encouraged the growth of its local tech giants, including Alibaba, Ant Group, Tencent and Baidu, while also shutting out its big American rivals.
All are largely indispensable in China for social interaction, entertainment, commerce, and more.
But China's authorities increasingly see such enormous influence as a risk to the country's political and economic stability.
Ant Group, for example, can charge loan fees without the strict regulations imposed on commercial banks.
"The crushing of big-name tech entrepreneurs is part of that larger process by the party to regain control and really rewrite the narrative of how China's technological innovation takes place only under the circumstances that the party allows," he noted. Mitter.
In recent months, the government's steps to control this sector have become more apparent.
The Communist Party published an unusually frank set of guidelines in September, for example, calling on its members to "educate private entrepreneurs to arm their minds with [Xi's] ideology of socialism."
And Xi himself signaled a tech offensive last month at an economic conference, calling on the country to strengthen antitrust efforts against online platforms and avoid a "disorderly expansion" of capital.
In the weeks since, that bolt tightening has been accomplished.
In addition to the regulatory lawsuits against Ant Group and the Alibaba investigation, authorities have warned other tech representatives against creating monopolies and abusing consumer data for profit.
The last of his kind
Ma, a member of the Communist Party, remains out of sight.
His social media pages have been down since October, and he even missed the end of an African entrepreneurial talent show he created.
(Alibaba said the event was missed due to a "scheduling conflict").
While Beijing has not been shy about fining or even jailing executives critical of the government, Ren, the real estate mogul who was jailed last year, reportedly wrote an essay that indirectly referred to Xi as a starving "clown." Of power, the tech industry and government watchers say Ma could voluntarily be out of the spotlight, at least for now.
The Chinese government wants its narrative on the Ant Group IPO to dominate the public conversation, said Duncan Clark, author of "Alibaba: The House Jack Ma Built" and founder of investment advisory firm BDA China.
He added that the company probably knows that having any "diversity of opinion" on the matter won't help.
"But it is certainly remarkable… the silence is deafening," Clark said, adding that he hopes Ma will finally come out publicly with a written statement on contributing to reform in China.
"He got the signal that 'I talked too much, it caused me problems, so I need to shut up,'" said Angela Zhang, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong who has studied the application of antitrust laws in China.
Loss of 'soft power'
One thing, at least, seems clear: As the Chinese Communist Party piles up pressure on the country's tech titans, it seems unlikely the sector will see another figure like Ma. Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang, who succeeded Ma as President in 2019, he adopted a conciliatory tone on regulation in November, describing the government's efforts to tighten restrictions on internet companies as "timely and necessary."
However, the loss of that kind of voice will have consequences for Beijing, Mitter said.
Many countries, particularly in the West, already view China and its businesses as existential threats worthy of heavy sanctions and scrutiny, tensions that stem from the fear that all Chinese corporations are operating at the behest of the Communist Party.
Suppressing criticism from those tech leaders at home could further hamper influence abroad.
"The ability of a figure like Jack Ma to speak will be more difficult, and I think this will create an additional problem for China's desire to generate soft power," Mitter said.
"Nobody really takes the numbers of any country that travels the world seriously by simply saying the government line."
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