Alibaba founder and billionaire Jack Ma made his first public appearance, reportedly via a virtual video, at the Jack Ma Foundation’s Rural Teachers Award Ceremony. This is the first time he has been seen publicly in months after his fintech company, the Ant Group, came under tough regulatory scrutiny in China.
According to Global Times, which shared the video clip, Jack Ma said to 100 rural teachers, “We’ll meet after the pandemic.” Jack Ma’s disappearance from public view for two months had raised eyebrows.
This happened after Jack made a speech criticising China’s regulators and state-owed banks. He had said that Chinese regulators have a “pawnshop mentality”, and that if banks don’t change, “we will change the banks.”
According to reports, Jack’s dissent against Chinese authorities is what landed Ant Group in hot soup.
Ma, who used to be an English teacher and founder of #Alibaba, also gives wishes to village teachers via a video on Wednesday, saying usually the activity is held in Sanya in southern Hainan but this year, due to #Covid19 it has to be done via video conference. pic.twitter.com/yfi7oPB5Sb
— Qingqing_Chen (@qingqingparis) January 20, 2021
In December 2020, after Ant Financial’s IPO was scrapped, China’s top market watchdog started probing into alleged anti-competition practices by Alibaba and laid out a “rectification plan” for Ant Group. The group was also summoned for regulatory talks and a plan was announced to “rectify” the company’s regulatory violations.
Jack Ma is a former English teacher who became the international poster boy for Chinese e-commerce.
Reports had earlier indicated that these developments are proof of China's resolve to nationalize Alibaba. Song Qing, internet finance industry insider, said the investigation is part of CCP plans to nationalize both Ant Group and Alibaba. "There will definitely be an outcome, now that they have started the investigation ... This is probably coming from the highest levels," he told Radio Free Asia.
The suggestions are that the plan to nationalize Alibaba has come from the very top of the ruling Communist Party structure, IB Times had reported. The People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said the government's "anti-monopoly work" will lead to "better development." The paper said the party Politburo thought 'anti-monopoly work' should be strengthened to prevent the disorderly expansion of capital.
(With IANS inputs)