In the last two days of 2020, I was interviewed by Politics and Economics Frontline and discussed with the host, Mr. Zhang Honglin, the topic of “China Issues: Why is China at war with Jack Ma?” Mr. Zhang Honglin pointed out that in China, Jack Ma is synonymous with success, and that the English teacher-born Internet entrepreneur is the richest man in China, having founded Alibaba, a competitor on par with Amazon. After Trump was elected president in 2016, Ma was the first Chinese celebrity he met, and for China’s ambitious young people, the story of “Papa Ma” is one to emulate. But almost overnight, the public mood in China suddenly changed and “Papa Ma” became a street rat in China!
Mr. Zhang Honglin, an observant man with a deep resume, the executive director of Taiwan‘s Citizens’ Alliance for Parliamentary Oversight and the head of many NGOs, found that after a Chinese writer listed Ma’s “ten sins,” more and more mainlanders were quoting Marx in their comments under the story about Ma. “Proletarians of the world unite!” This is indeed creepy. Because of the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown, Chinese technology stocks have been under continuous selling pressure, with four giants losing nearly $200 billion in market value alone. U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion epidemic bailout bill, driving U.S. stocks up, but not much help for Alibaba U.S. stocks, so the question for Mr. Zhang Honglin is, can Trump save Jack Ma?
How to say it, Trump’s first term policy, is the United States first, make the United States strong again. If Trump continues his second term, he will also continue this strategy. But I’m afraid there is no desire to help Chinese companies in Trump’s strategy. Chinese companies, especially those with the Communist Party’s top brass, the Communist Party’s military, or those suspected of stealing U.S. technology, will not only not benefit from U.S. economic development, they will be hit. Recall that Trump met with many of the world’s business giants in January 2017, shortly after his election in 2016 and before he took office, to discuss ways to boost the U.S. economy, promote American jobs, and bring manufacturing back to the United States. Ma was the only mainlander to meet with Trump at that time, a step ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s diplomats. Remember, Jack Ma once surprised people by boasting that his company would help create a million jobs in the United States.
But then, Mr. Ma’s promise was soon retracted by himself, and after the U.S.-China trade war started, he publicly said he retracted this promise. The businessman, credibility first, a word both out, team hard to follow. I don’t know if Trump still remembers Ma’s promise, anyway, after the U.S.-China trade war began, manufacturing back to the United States, has generated millions of jobs in the United States. Once the recession brought about by the plague passes, the U.S. economy will generate even more jobs. From the author’s perspective, three years ago it was impossible to see how a Chinese e-commerce company that had copied Amazon could help create so many jobs in the United States. But anyway, it is true that Jack Ma needs help, and he and other private entrepreneurs in China are facing a major calamity from the bloodthirsty and greedy Chinese Communist regime, a calamity that may be even greater than the “transformation of capitalist industry and commerce” initiated by the Chinese Communist Party in the 1950s!
Dai Xu, a hawkish representative of the Chinese Communist Party’s military, is said to be accusing Ma of endangering national security, which is a very alarming and dangerous signal, meaning that the Chinese Communist Party can use such a charge to directly deprive Ma of all his assets. It is known that Ma’s Ant Group is considering incorporating its most lucrative financial business into a holding company in order to meet the official demands of the Chinese Communist Party. But Ant Group would immediately lose half of its revenue if it were forced to shed its financial business, and not only would Ma and Alibaba be damaged, but many investors around the world would be greatly hemorrhaged.
Mr. Zhang Honglin also notes that as the CCP rolls out these predatory policies against Internet company bigwigs, it also deliberately propagandizes and incites in the private sector and the media, exploiting the Chinese people’s hatred of the rich. This is not the first time the CCP has used this practice of exploiting people’s narrow-minded and selfish hatred of the rich and wealthy. The CCP used the same ploy during its communist revolution, when it deprived Chinese landowners and peasants of their property. The use of so-called financial regulation and anti-monopoly laws to suppress and erode private capital, to compete with the people for profits, and to enrich the pockets of the Communist Party’s vested interests, is also a repeat of the “capitalist industrial and commercial transformation” carried out by the Communist Party in the 1950s and the plundering of the property of urban industrial and commercial workers. The reason behind this is that the CCP is bankrupt and out of money. The CCP is depleted of capital and foreign exchange, and the economy is in serious recession and unable to recover.
At the December meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC), “anti-monopoly” was identified for the first time as a priority in 2021, and the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC) announced that the “anti-monopoly law” will be amended in 2021. For an individual economy or a company, it is a symbol of success to strive to maximize profits and market share, or even to finally become a monopoly. But an oligopoly, even if it is reached through legal means, affects the rights of consumers, which is why anti-trust laws emerged 130 years ago in American society to curb monopolistic behavior to protect consumers. The Chinese Communist regime, however, is precisely not qualified to talk about and implement anti-monopoly laws!
The biggest problem in China right now is the CCP’s monopoly on political power and the CCP’s authoritarian dictatorship, which is the root cause of all the suffering of the Chinese people. The Chinese Communist Party’s state-owned enterprises, as small treasuries and private banks for the Communist Party’s vested interests, are first and foremost reaping the high profits of the monopoly, so how are they qualified to talk about “anti-monopoly”? It is very simple for China to abolish the monopoly in the field of Internet, nothing needs to be done, just liberalize the Internet market and let Google, Amazon and E-Bay enter China! Of course, these private enterprises in China, they are also dependent on the Chinese Communist Party, they are under the umbrella of the Chinese Communist Party, there is no competition from Western companies, from the West to learn and imitate to technology, so they can grow. Their shortcomings, the injection of capital from the CCP when they were first established, are the pigtails in the hands of the CCP, so it is very difficult for them to do their job in the face of the CCP’s tightening pressure and their own original sin.
According to U.S.-based writer “A Sword of Dust”, in this massacre of private enterprises, it is not only Jack Ma who has been defeated, but how long does it take to fall from heaven to hell? Ma now has the most experience. The Chinese Communist Party’s political crackdown is not aimed at Jack Ma personally. He may not escape this calamity; even if Ma escapes this calamity, the Chinese private capitalist community will not escape this calamity. Indeed, this new “communist” movement, launched when the Chinese Communist Party is at its wits’ end, will loot all private capital before it is too late.
Will Trump be able to save Jack Ma? Mr. Zhang Honglin raised a very interesting question. It is hard to predict how much Trump and Ma will intersect now. But as they say, those who help themselves are helped by God, depending on the nature of his relationship with and attitude toward the Chinese Communist Party. Will it be a false deal, or a dance with the wolf? Is it borrowing a boat to go to sea, or is it sharing the same boat? It is said to be for Jack Ma, but in fact it is a question for all Chinese private entrepreneurs, who all face such a choice!
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