Beijing: Over two months after Chinese Tech Billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma gave a controversial speech in October 2020, he is yet to make a public appearance, fueling speculations of him being “missing” across social media platforms.
Jack Ma, in a speech on October 24, criticized China’s “pawnshop financial regulators and state-owned banks.” He also called for a reform of China’s regulation system for stifling business innovation and likened global banking regulations to an ‘old people’s club’.
Jack Ma also did not appear for the final episode of his own talent show, Africa’s Business Heroes in November and was replaced by Lucy Peng, an Alibaba executive to judge the show. An Alibaba spokesperson had told Financial Times that Jack was unable to attend the final episode of the show as a judge due to the conflict in schedule time.
“Today’s financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age. We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system,” Ma said in the speech. According to The Wall Street Journal, officials in Beijing dressed down Ma and suspended the $37billion initial public offering of his Ant Group on the direct order of President Xi in November.
Bloomberg noted that Ma was advised to remain in China after which an anti-monopoly investigation was launched into Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding on Christmas Eve. Beijing also ordered Ma’s financial tech company Ant Group to scale back its operations. The anti-monopoly investigation caused Alibaba’s shares to drop by a quarter since their peak shortly after the October speech, wiping more than $10billion from Ma’s fortune, Daily Mail UK reported. This resulted in Jack Ma landing in third place on the list of China’s richest people, behind Pinduoduo chief executive Colin Huang and Tencent Holdings’ Pony Ma Huateng. Ma now has an estimated current net worth of $63.1billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Reports speculate that Ma’s speech angered the Chinese government, which viewed his criticisms as an attack on the authority of the Communist Party. Ma’s business empire, Ant Group, has been under scrutiny by Beijing ever since the speech. Jack Ma was involved in charity work and has donated millions of face masks to Europe, the US, and the World Health Organisation in the backdrop of coronavirus. He also donated 2000 ventilators to New York hospitals.
