Mystery surrounds Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s whereabouts, after he missed an appearance on a TV talent show he founded back in November, and hasn’t been seen since.
An Alibaba spokesperson told the Financial Times that Ma was unable to take part on the judging panel due to a scheduling conflict, but the billionaire’s silence has interesting timing.
Jack Ma is the founder of tech giant Alibaba, and is worth an estimated US$51 billion (AU$66.4 billion).
He also founded Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial and Alipay, an affiliate company of the Alibaba Group. Alipay is China’s largest digital payments platform.
But it’s Ma’s rags-to-riches back story that has shot him to fame: he was a broke English teacher until someone showed him the internet on a trip to the US in the 1990s.
In 1999, he convinced his friends to give him US$60,000 to start a new business in China, and Alibaba was born from his bedroom in Hangzhou, starting a retail revolution with it.
After appearing in movies, performing on stage donning a rockstar costume and speaking at countless conferences, he’s seen as China’s flamboyant poster boy for tech.
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| Jack Ma sparring with Donnie Yen |
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| Jack Ma appeared as a rock star in his farewell concert. |
At the Bund Summit in Shanghai on 24 October, Ma criticised the lawmakers that enforce global financial regulations, the Basel Accords, saying they were like “an old people’s club”.
According to The Times, Ma, a Communist Party member, said: “The Basel Accords are like an old people’s club… we can’t use yesterday’s methods to regulate the future”.
The billionaire said the Basel Accords framework stifled opportunities for young people and developing nations, and that regulatory rules suppressed innovation.
Before the summit, Ant Group was preparing for a US$37 billion initial public offering (IPO), and would have valued the company at more than US$300 billion.
The IPO would have boosted Ma’s net worth even further, and cemented his position as the nation’s richest man.
After the summit, things changed.
China cracked down on regulations, smothering Ant Group’s IPO and triggered a US$140 billion (17 per cent) decline in the market value of Ma’s Alibaba.’
The Shanghai Stock Exchange said Ant had reported “significant issues such as the changes in financial technology regulatory environment”.
In late December, Chinese authorities launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Alibaba, and told Ant Group to restructure its operations.
Ma was then called in by regulators for investigation, and his vanished from the public eye ever since.
And it’s likely not a coincidence, the professor of finance at Hong Kong University, Chen Zhiwu, told the Financial Times.
“The fintech clean-up considerations would not have been an issue [for the authorities].
“But everything changed after the speech... Xinhua News agency publicly attacked Ma,” he said.
Yes. Ma is not the only Chinese businessman to disappear from the public eye after battling with regulators.
In 2020, Xu Zhangrun, a law professor, and Zhang Xuehzong, a human rights lawyer, were reportedly arrested over criticising the Communist Party for its response to the pandemic.
Retired real-estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang also reportedly disappeared for criticising the Communist Party’s COVID response, and was later sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Ma has been out of public view since November, when he failed to make an appearance at his own talent show, Africa’s Business Heroes.
Ma was supposed to be on the judging panel, but was replaced by an Alibaba executive in the final. His picture was also removed from the website.
The billionaire’s last tweet was on 10 October in 2020.
Source: Yahoo Finance
中国亿万富翁和阿里巴巴创始人马云目前下落不明，因为他缺席11月他所创办的电视才艺节目，此后一直不见踪影。
阿里巴巴一位发言人对 英国《金融时报》 表示，由于日程安排的冲突，马云无法参加评审团，但有趣的是马云对此解释的沉默更给人增加了无数幻想空间。
马云是科技巨头阿里巴巴的创始人，身价估计为510亿美元（664亿澳元）。
他还创立了蚂蚁集团，前身为蚂蚁金服和阿里巴巴集团的关联公司支付宝。支付宝是中国最大的数字支付平台。
马云原本是一位极度普通又穷的英语老师，直到1990年代在美国出访时第一次认识了互联网。
1999年，他说服朋友们给他6万美元，以在中国开展新业务。阿里巴巴从他在杭州的卧室出生，由此引发了一场零售革命。
马云知名度不断提高，尤其是在他出演过电影，穿上摇滚巨星的服装在舞台上表演并在无数次会议上发表演讲后，他被视为中国艳丽的高科技海报男孩。
在10月24日于上海举行的外滩峰会上，马云批评了执行全球金融法规的立法者《巴塞尔协议》，称他们就像“老年人俱乐部”。
据 《泰晤士报》报道， 共产党员的马云说：“《巴塞尔协议》就像一个老年人俱乐部……我们不能使用昨天的方法来规范未来。”
在峰会召开之前，蚂蚁集团正准备进行370亿美元的首次公开募股（IPO），而该公司的市值将超过3,000亿美元。
首次公开募股将进一步提高马云的净资产，并巩固其作为国家首富的地位。
首脑会议之后，情况开始发生了变化。
中国严厉打击法规，扼杀了蚂蚁集团的首次公开募股，并导致马云的阿里巴巴市值下跌了1400亿美元（17％）。
上海证券交易所表示，蚂蚁集团的报告有“重大问题，例如金融技术监管环境的变化”。
12月下旬，中国当局对阿里巴巴展开了反垄断调查，并要求蚂蚁集团重组其业务。
马云随后被监管机构召集进行调查，此后就从公众视野消失。
香港大学金融学教授陈志武告诉《金融时报》，这可能不是巧合 。
“对于[金融当局]，金融科技清理的考虑将不是问题。
他说：“但是演讲后一切都变了……新华社公开抨击马云。”
是。在与监管机构进行斗争之后，马云并不是唯一一个从公众视野中消失的中国商人。
据报道，2020年，法学教授徐章润和人权律师张学宗因批评共产党对这一流行病的批评而被捕。
据报道，退休的房地产大亨任志强也因批评共
产党的COVID反应而失踪，后来被判处18年徒刑。
自从11月以来，马云一直没有露面，当时他没有参加自己的才艺表演《 非洲商业英雄》。
马云原本应该担任评审团成员，但最终却被阿里巴巴高管取代。他的照片也从网站上删除。
这位亿万富翁的最后一条推文是2020年10月10日。
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