China is not a country that calmly accepts the criticisms it receives, making its citizens experience a regime of opinion limitation. However, Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce Alibaba dared to use his power of influence to give more visibility to his own opinions, speaking publicly in a negative way towards the government.
However, since taking this action, Jack has become a figure present only in the news, since he has not been seen in public since October, when he decided to expose his personal position in relation to the politics of the country of origin. At the time, he said:
Chinese finance is fundamentally risk-free; instead, the risk comes from the lack of a system. A good innovation is not afraid of regulation, but it is afraid of outdated regulations. We shouldn’t use the way of running a train station to regulate an airport, ”he said at the event in October.
A clear demonstration that something is happening behind the scenes is the fact that he was replaced as a judge in the finale of the ‘Africa’s Business Heroes’ TV show, which is similar in format to the Shark Tank, in November. According to information from the Financial Times, to justify the absence of the billionaire, they claimed that there was a conflict of agendas, which at the time ended up being accepted without too much doubt because it was the period 11/11 and Black Friday, phases when the Chinese trade more sells.
However, in December it ended up becoming a spotlight on leading tech and economic news sites around the world as Alibaba was under investigation for monopolistic conduct, which ended up affecting significantly the stability of the company’s shares on the stock exchange, which actually fell 8%.
Recently, a publication from Xinhua, The China state news agency, showed a picture of a cloud in the shape of a horse with the headline “Don’t talk without thinking, don’t do what you want”. It was a direct quote from Jack Ma, whose original name is Mǎ Yún, which means cloud in the shape of a horse.
Although not being part of the company’s board of directors, since retiring last year, Jack remains an active spokesperson for Alibaba and has revealed on social media that he would cooperate with investigations. Even with constant online activity, not being seen in public is starting to raise theories about what may have really happened to her after criticism of the Chinese government.