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Jack Ma was China's poster tycoon.
Until he came out against the regime
For more than two months, no one has seen the founder of Alibaba and one of the richest people in the world, who criticized the Chinese economy and disappeared.
Like many other capitalists who have absorbed the arm of the authorities, Ma also learns firsthand that the big money is not stronger than the ruler Shai and the Communist Party.
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Jack Ma
China
Xi Jinping
Guy Elster
Saturday, 09 January 2021, 12:13
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His speech against the system cost Alibaba billions of dollars.
Jack Ma (Photo: Reuters)
"No matter how strong and rich he is, he cannot escape China."
One thing in particular stood out in the final episode of the reality show "Business Heroes of Africa" - its creator, Jack Ma, did not appear as a judge and was removed from all trailers.
A spokesman for him said it was due to a "tight schedule", but it is doubtful if anyone believes the explanation.
The Chinese billionaire, the founder of the Alibaba website, has not been seen in public for more than two months and speculation about his whereabouts has grown.
Ma, who was formerly a sort of poster boy of the communist regime in his attempt to display his economic openness, has fallen under the party's tower glass since a speech he delivered in October in which he sharply criticized Chinese regulation.
He accused her of thwarting innovation and likening her banking laws to a "closed club of old people."
"Today's financial system is a legacy of the industrial age," Ma said in a speech in Shanghai on October 24.
"We need to build a new one for the next generation and the young. We need to change the current system."
It was the last time anyone saw one of the richest people in the world.
About a week after the speech, the IPO of Alibaba's financial technology branch, ANT Group, which reached a record value of $ 37 billion, was suspended after it had already received the green light from Chinese regulations.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange said the company reported "significant problems such as changes in the financial technology regulatory environment".
The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese ruler Xi Jinping, who has gained more power than any other leader since the founder of the communist regime, Mao Zedong, himself ordered an ANT rally.
Late last month, authorities shifted gears and opened an investigation on suspicion that Alibaba is a banned monopoly.
That day, the company's value in the market plummeted by an astronomical $ 110 billion.
Veteran U.S. investor Mark Mobius said the moves by the authorities were intended to prevent financial entities from becoming too large.
"I believe the Chinese government came in because it understood that it needed to monitor these companies so that they would not become too big," he told CNBC.
"The Chinese government has woken up to discover that it cannot allow these companies to control one particular sector, and especially the financial sector."
No man is too strong for him.
Chinese ruler Xi at Beijing People's Congress (Photo: AP)
Ma, who retired from managerial positions at Alibaba but remained its major shareholder, is closely familiar with Chinese tyranny.
It grew up during Mao's 'Cultural Revolution', which lasted from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s and during which "anti-revolutionary factors" were purified by hand.
With Mao's death, China underwent liberalization - economic only - under Deng Xioping that saved it from a complete collapse.
Ma, who was born Ma Yun and changed it when he was a guide of foreign tourists who had a hard time pronouncing his name, is a member of the new Chinese getting richer generation.
The former English teacher, who previously said he was not hired to work at KFC, recognized the potential inherent in the Internet in its early 90s, until its website, Amazon's Chinese equivalent, became the empire it is.
Following the outbreak of the corona plague early last year, Ma has donated millions of masks to Europe, the United States and the World Health Organization who have struggled to cope with the virus, and is also involved in charity work through the Jack Ma Foundation focusing on education, entrepreneurship, female leadership and the environment.
In Shai's China, this is not a guarantee of immunity or a position of political influence and there is no person other than him or a body other than the Communist Party who are Too big to be fail.
"If Alibaba founder Jack Ma 'disappeared suspiciously' for more than two months after criticizing China's financial system, it shows that no matter what guarantees Chinese tech companies give, they are in fact controlled by the Communist Party," tweeted Kenneth Ruth. Director General of the Human Rights Watch Organization.
"Every day is uncertainty"
Chinese censorship prevents reports of MA within the country, and the information is vague.
According to some reports, Ma deliberately lowered his profile so as not to upset the regime too much.
Others see his disappearance, which includes stopping tweets on his active account, hinted meters ahead.
Usually, when Chinese officials disappear, the next time they appear is after they have "admitted" the crimes attributed to them by the party and their conviction in the courts.
Sometimes it ends in imprisonment, and in some cases even the death penalty, such as the one imposed this week on the banker and senior party member of the island of Shiomin, who was convicted of corruption and polygamy.
Earlier this year, Ren Ziqiang, a former head of a large state-owned real estate company, disappeared after criticizing government treatment in Corona. 18 years imprisonment.
Ma lived within his people, and always seemed to know that nothing was guaranteed. "Every day is uncertainty.
The only sure day is yesterday, "he said at the 2017 Davos Economic Forum.
"If he can leave, there is only one possibility - that the Chinese Communist Party wants him to leave" (Photo: AP)
According to a Bloomberg report from the beginning of the month, according to people involved in the matter, the Chinese authorities "advised" Lama at the beginning of last month not to leave the country. In another sign of the sensitivity of the issue, an Alibaba spokesman said this week that "no further information will be provided at this time" regarding Ma's whereabouts.
Ha Bidong, a commentator and economist living in Los Angeles, told the Voice of America network that it is not possible that he left China as some believe.
"No matter how strong and rich he is, he cannot escape China," said Ha, who was a political prisoner in China for seven years before settling in the United States in 2018. "If he can leave, there is only one possibility - that the Communist Party of China wants him to leave."
Experts estimate that the current steps are just the beginning of Shai and the regime's fight against technology tycoons, who have amassed a lot of power and capital over the past few decades. In this, Beijing clarifies to Ma and all the other capitalists - we allow you to get rich, but it does not give you the right to go against the system and the government.
Ha believes there is only one possible fate for Alibaba, and not particularly optimistic. According to him, it will pass into the ownership of whoever the Communist Party wants.
"Jack Ma and people like him will be eliminated."
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