Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, whose whereabouts have been unknown since last year, has still been able to cross over to regulators and communicate directly with top Communist Party officials about his situation, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The report reveals that Ma is not under house arrest, as rumored, but is still able to travel on private jets. But Ma’s schedule has been drastically reduced since this year, with his special plane parked in Hangzhou flying out only once a week, destined for Beijing or Hainan.
A person with knowledge of Alibaba confirmed that Ma is also directly involved in discussions about the fate of the Ant Group.
On the other hand, Alibaba’s Ant Group said to the public on March 12 that Hu will resign as CEO of the company and will only be responsible for Ant and Ali’s ecological social welfare projects in the future.
Ant Group’s plan to list in Shanghai and Hong Kong was urgently called off by Chinese government monitoring authorities last November, and Ma, Hu and other Ant Group’s de facto controllers were interviewed by the central authorities. There are now rumors that Alibaba Group may be levied a hefty fine by the Chinese government for its monopolistic practices in Ant Group and other areas.
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