Where is Jack Ma, the richest man in China?

Shanghai / Beijing The founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba and China’s richest man thanks to his $ 65.6 billion fortune, Jack Ma, has not appeared in public since late October 2020, weeks in which relations between Beijing and the United States have deteriorated. conglomerate you created.

In recent weeks, the international press has speculated about Ma’s whereabouts – even using the term “disappeared” – while the official Chinese media maintains a coordinated silence that coincides with information about alleged orders from Beijing not to draw media attention to the investigation. recently opened an antitrust case against Alibaba.

However, Sources familiar with the situation explained to Efe today that Ma is trying to keep a “low profile” and that “he’s okay,” while qualifying rumors that he was being held or that the authorities have banned him from leaving the country. “Unfounded”.

In November, Ma did not sit on the jury for the television show he founded, “The heroes of business in Africa,” and was replaced by another Alibaba director, who raised those alarms given his apparent friction with the government. Chinese in recent times.

Continuing speculation

In recent years, some of the best-known figures in China have “disappeared” after committing crimes or having disputes with the authorities, and reappear months later, as is the case of popular actress Fan Bingbing, none of whom was known. for several months in 2018 following a case of tax evasion.

Ma, however, appears to be trying to stop a stir in light of Beijing’s heavy hand, which forced the suspension of the IPO of Ma’s fintech, Ant Group, in November, which would become the largest operation. of this kind of story.

Be that as it may, Ma, a public figure who doesn’t shy away from cameras or microphones – she recorded her own kung fu movie and appeared onstage and imitated Michael Jackson at a corporate event – didn’t want to shy away from it. rumors, and neither Alibaba nor Ant have officially done so.

What both firms have done is issue several statements ensuring that their operations remain normal and that they will cooperate with the authorities.

It should be remembered that Ma left Alibaba’s presidency in 2019 – 20 years after its founding – and he does not hold any executive position in Ant, although he is a majority shareholder in it.

Meanwhile, his vast legion of followers on Chinese social networks like the popular Weibo, equal to Twitter, is asking the entrepreneur, popularly known as ‘Professor Ma’ due to his professional background in teaching English, to give an idea of his whereabouts, while his opponents brand him an unscrupulous “capitalist” and assure that “he will be punished.”

And in the Baidu search engine -similar to Google- predictions when writing Ma Yun (his name in Chinese) go by “Jack Ma went into exile”, “Jack Ma sentenced to imprisonment” or “Jack Ma, disappeared” , showing that speculation is persistent among the citizens of the Asian country.

Criticism and attempts to calm the waters

Just before Ant’s failed IPO, Ma caused much controversy in China by delivering a speech sharply criticizing China’s strategy to minimize risks in the financial sector, assuring that “innovation always comes with risk “and that” the greatest risk is when you try to minimize the risk to zero. “

The richest man in China, who is also a member of the Communist Party (CCP), then set aside some bullets against traditional banks, which he says are being used as “pawnshops” to defend the need for alternative financing channels. such as those offered by Ant through its Alipay platform.

Days later, Chinese regulators called on executives from Ma and Ant and published a new regulation that was much more restrictive on “ fintech, ” something that led some experts to speculate that the businessman already knew the contents of those new regulations, and he attempted a renegotiation of that new regulation. to enforce its conditions through public criticism, which is not too common for such a high-ranking figure in China.

In recent weeks, both the state press and senior regulatory officials have criticized these funding channels, making financial innovation a ‘double-edged sword’ and some companies in the industry, without Ant, operating “in violation of the regulations under the flag of innovation and cause enormous financial and social risks. “

Faced with the attacks from Beijing, Ant decided to lower the credit limits for the youngest users of his Huabei and Ma virtual card service, according to the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, and allegedly offered the authorities to take control of one of the corporate platforms. the country needs them ”.