One of the richest people on the planet and founder of one of the largest Chinese business empires, Alibaba Group Holding, Jack Ma has not appeared in public for six weeks after his conflict with the Chinese authorities.
According to the Independent, in this regard, rumors about his whereabouts appeared in the Chinese media.
His last public statement was criticism of China’s financial regulators — at a financial forum in Shanghai on October 24, the 56-year-old billionaire said that state-owned banks and regulators have a “pawnshop mentality” and that they are slowing down innovation.
At the same time, he missed the finale of the television show “Business Heroes of Africa”, in which 10 participants were determined to whom the Jack Ma Foundation would allocate $1.5 million to implement their entrepreneurial ideas. Alibaba co-founder Lucy Peng took his place among the judges. An Alibaba spokesman attributed this to a “scheduling conflict.”
As a reminder, Ma’s scandalous performance in Shanghai, which many users praised for his audacity, disrupted Ant Group’s initial public offering, which was slated to be the largest in the world. It is assumed that the leader of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping himself could have initiated the cancellation of the IPO.
After that, an antitrust investigation was initiated against Alibaba.
In addition, according to Bloomberg, the richest Chinese was banned from leaving the country, and in November he offered to nationalize some of his techno assets, but the country’s authorities refused.
