Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, who in a few years became one of the richest people in China, was well and truly gone.
He has lived in Japan for at least six months. His disappearance from the public scene came as Beijing authorities put pressure on major Chinese tech companies in October 2020. And more particularly on the head of Alibaba, who then ventured to openly criticize regulators of the Chinese state.
The Chinese government retaliated violently by halting the $37 billion IPO of Ant Group, an online financial platform spun off from Alipay, Alibaba’s internal mobile payment app. Alibaba’s stock price then plummeted, costing Jack Ma his status as China’s richest tycoon.
Wealthy Chinese seek ways to emigrate
“It’s a speech that cost him at least $35 billion,” said Nina Xiang, director of the China Money Network, in a column published on LinkedIn.
Since then, Jack Ma, usually very talkative, had been silent. This had sparked a wave of speculation about his fate. Born into a poor family, Jack Ma remains one of China’s most revered businessmen.
The Japanese exile of Jack Ma, 58, is divided between hobbies such as painting, collecting works of art or skiing; and frequenting Tokyo business clubs, where he rubs shoulders with wealthy Chinese businessmen who have also left the country and settled in the Japanese capital, says the Financial Times.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, owned by Jack Ma, recently reported that wealthy Chinese were looking for ways to emigrate after Xi won a third five-year term as leader of the country at the CCP Congress. . They would fear the establishment of repressive measures against them.
China is currently in the throes of major unrest, with parts of the population protesting against the government’s “COVID zero” containment policy. As a result of this situation, the production of electronic equipment, including iPhones, is idling.