Alibaba founder Jack Ma has disappeared from public for more than two months, speculation that Chinese authorities are involved

by Paul Kagame

' Jack Ma , the founder of China's leading IT company Alibaba Group , hasn't appeared in public for more than two months,' reports foreign media. Chinese officials have also been reported to be involved in the missing reports following the planned initial public offering (IPO) suspension by Alibaba-affiliated companies and antitrust investigations into Alibaba.

Jack Ma's disappearing act fuels speculation about billionaire's whereabouts | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-ant-group-jack-ma-idUSKBN2991DA

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma missing weeks after criticising state financial system | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/jack-ma-missing-china-billionaire-b1781853.html

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma suspected missing in China
https://nypost.com/2021/01/04/chinese-billionaire-jack-ma-suspected-missing-in-china/

According to foreign media reports, Mr. Ma has not appeared in public since around November 2020, and the involvement of Chinese authorities has been whispered on social media. Since November 2020, the conflict between Alibaba Group, which was founded by Mr. Ma, and the Chinese authorities has become more serious, and in November, the IPO of Ant Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba, was suspended. Ant Group is a financial company that operates the electronic payment service 'Alipay', and the IPO was expected to be 35 billion dollars (about 3.26 trillion yen).

Ant's super-large IPO canceled, too abrupt-what happened in the past week-Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/articles/2020-11-06/QJBABHT1UM0X01

In December, it was revealed that China's Directorate General of National Market Supervision and Administration entered into an investigation into Alibaba Group on suspicion of monopoly behavior.

Chinese authorities start investigating IT giant Alibaba on suspicion of monopoly --GIGAZINE

One of the reasons for the deepening conflict between Mr. Ma and the Chinese authorities was his remarks at a meeting held in Shanghai on October 24th. At the meeting, attended by financial tycoons and government dignitaries, Mr. Ma said, 'Financial regulations in China are hampering technological innovation and reforms are needed for economic growth.' Criticized authorities and banks. It is believed that this statement triggered the Ant Group's IPO to be canceled shortly before.

Focus: Ant's listing postponement caused by tongue, Jack Ma's big miscalculation | Reuters
https://jp.reuters.com/article/ant-group-ipo-suspension-regulators-idJPKBN27M0MT

Since then, Mr. Ma has disappeared from public for more than two months, including withdrawing from the final episode of the TV show 'Africa's Business Heroes,' which was scheduled to air in November. 'Africa's Business Heroes' is a program in which African entrepreneurs give presentations on business plans and give out a prize of 1 million dollars (about 103 million yen) in the order of excellent presentations. Mr. Ma appeared as a 'judgment' who evaluated the entrepreneur's presentation, but he did not participate in the final recording. A spokeswoman for Alibaba Group explained that there was a schedule problem with Mr. Ma's absence from the show.

In addition, episode 1 of 'Africa's Business Heroes' can be seen in the following embedded movie, and you can see Mr. Ma participating as a judge.

Africa's Business Heroes Episode 1 --YouTube


Mr. Ma's Twitter account has not been updated since the last tweet on October 10, and various speculations have been whispered on Twitter. Meanwhile, Mr. Ma's actions have not become an important trend topic on Chinese social media, which is being censored by the authorities.