Icon: enlarge
Apparently on the diving station as a precaution:
Alibaba founder
Jack Ma
is in the sights of Beijing
Photo: Mark Schiefelbein / AP
When puzzling over the whereabouts of the Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder
Jack Ma
(56), the influence of government agencies seems more and more obvious.
As the "Financial Times" reports, the Chinese government has now directly instructed the country's media to strictly adhere to the state line in reporting on the ongoing antitrust proceedings against Ma's online retailer Alibaba.
This makes it clear that the cause is now of national interest, according to the "FT".
The Chinese authorities had cracked down on Jack Mas’s operations in recent months.
First of all, the planned IPO of the Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial - it should have been the world's largest to date - was canceled at the last moment in early November.
The country's antitrust authorities later launched monopoly proceedings against parent company Alibaba.
At the end of December, the Chinese central bank finally asked the Ant Group to concentrate more on its core business.
As the "FT" now reports, according to insiders, the central bank is still planning to separate the area of consumer credit and other parts of the Ant Group and to regulate it more strictly.
And especially noteworthy: Group founder Jack Ma disappeared from the public for months.
At the end of October, the charismatic corporate leader, who is one of the richest men in China, gave a lecture at a financial forum in Shanghai in which he clearly criticized the international rules of financial regulation ("Old People's Club").
Ma also targeted China's leading banks.
Since then, the billionaire has not appeared, which has already led to various speculations about his whereabouts.
However, as the US broadcaster CNBC reported on Wednesday of this week with reference to a person who is familiar with the matter, Ma has by no means disappeared.
The Alibaba founder is currently keeping a low profile - apparently against the background of the state action against his group.
Powerful families in China affected
He obviously has good reason for doing so, because Beijing seems to be very serious about its actions against the Alibaba group.
At the end of December, the Chinese government's propaganda department instructed the country's media companies to strictly adhere to the official line of the monopoly authorities on the issue of Alibaba, according to the FT.
Without permission, no detailed analyzes of the matter are desired, reports the newspaper.
"If any company communications contradict the official position, do not publish them, do not distribute them, do not cite foreign media," the newspaper quoted from the Beijing directive to China's media houses.
According to observers, this should be taken very seriously.
The wording of the state ordinance is therefore similar to the language that Beijing also uses for important political events and court cases against dissidents in the country.
The background to the action against Alibaba is therefore hardly just the critical speech that founder Jack Ma gave in October, and with which he may have hit a nerve with some of the greats in Beijing.
On the contrary, Beijing still feels "challenged" by the giant Alibaba, the "FT" quotes a media representative from China.
In addition, according to the newspaper, the investments of Ma's company directly affect some of the most powerful families in political China.
These would be in the background if such pressure were put on Jack Ma and Alibaba, said an expert from China who works as a scientist at the University of California.
cr