Jack Ma suddenly absent from the reality show created by himself has not appeared for 2 months

Alibaba founder Jack Ma is suddenly absent from his “Africa’s Business Heroes” TV show, and his seat as a finalist judge has been replaced by Alibaba executive Peng Lei.

The Financial Times reported on Jan. 1 that Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group who was one of the judges on the first final, has disappeared from the panel of judges for the second edition of Africa’s Business Heroes, which will be held in November 2020, and has been replaced by Peng Lei, one of the founders of Alibaba Group.

Two contestants revealed that although the final was held in November, the show’s TV broadcast has been delayed until the spring of 2021, and the promotional video for the show at the end of November last year did not mention Jack Ma. And on the program’s website, Ma is not in the list of judges. A spokesperson for Alibaba said that due to scheduling conflicts, Jack Ma “may no longer be a finalist in the 2020 African Entrepreneur Competition.

Ma posted on social media platforms in August 2020 to congratulate the 20 participating entrepreneurs and said he was looking forward to meeting them.

The newspaper quoted one participant as revealing that he had pitched his business to Jack Ma early in the competition last year and was surprised that the final judge turned out to be Peng Lei.

Ma has not been seen in public for more than two months since he gave a speech at the Bund Financial Summit in Shanghai on Oct. 24 last year, when he publicly criticized the Chinese Communist Party authorities for outdated regulations, causing a furor.

At the same time, since then, Ma’s companies have been fined and interviewed by the Chinese Communist Party authorities, and even rumors in the mainland media that Ma has been charged at the border.

On November 2, four CCP financial regulators jointly interviewed Ant Group founder Jack Ma, Ant Group Chairman Jing Xiandong and other senior executives, and the following day Ant Group’s initial public offering was urgently called off.

On December 14, Alibaba Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Alibaba, and two other companies were each fined 500,000 yuan (RMB) by the Chinese authorities for “violating the anti-monopoly law”.

On December 24, the State Administration of Market Supervision of the Communist Party of China opened a case against Alibaba Group Holdings Limited for alleged monopolistic practices such as “choosing one over the other”.

On December 30, Alibaba’s Tmall and two other e-commerce companies were again fined 500,000 yuan each by the State Administration of Market Supervision.

During this period, the CCP’s financial regulator repeatedly interviewed Jack Ma’s Ant Group.

It is widely believed that Jack Ma, China’s richest man, is in trouble. Bloomberg quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that at least until early December, Beijing authorities advised Ma to stay in the country.

The mainland portal NetEase on Dec. 24 even published an article by the WeChat public number “Dark Night Research Room”, which reads, “Suddenly, a big one! Jack Ma was border-controlled! According to the article, according to Bloomberg, Jack Ma’s Alibaba empire is under regulatory scrutiny and he is not allowed to go anywhere but China. For Ma at this level, this is the same substantial border control as Wang Jianlin.

The article also emphasizes, “The side control on Jack Ma comes from the top BOSS (boss), who intended it for himself!”