Alibaba founder Jack Ma
On May 10, Alibaba celebrated its 17th “Ali Day” and Jack Ma, who has not been seen in public for a long time, showed up at Ali headquarters in Hangzhou with a slimmer figure. But last month, a video was circulated on the Internet showing Ma late at night drinking and chatting with friends at a bar, and he had gained a lot of weight.
The news was reported by Chinese financial media outlet “Sanyin Finance” on May 10.
On October 26, 2020, Jack Ma criticized the Chinese Communist Party’s financial regulatory system at the Bund Financial Summit in Shanghai. Ma’s speech caused many people to break into a cold sweat, fearing retaliation for angering Beijing, and Ma has rarely appeared in the public eye since then.
Beginning last October, Ma and his industry have been hit by a series of upheavals.
On November 2, 2020, Jack Ma was interviewed; on November 3, 2020, Ant Group’s initial public offering was urgently halted; and on December 14, 2020, Alibaba Investment Ltd, a subsidiary of Alibaba, and two other companies were fined 500,000 yuan each by the Chinese Communist Party authorities for “violating the anti-monopoly law. On December 24, 2020, the Communist Party’s State Administration of Market Supervision announced that it had opened an investigation into Alibaba Group Holdings Limited for alleged monopolistic practices such as “choosing one over the other”. On the same day, four major regulators – the Central Bank of the Communist Party of China, the CBRC, the SFC and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange – announced that they would interview Ant Group.
On April 9, Lakeside University was forced to stop enrolling new students. The registration of first-year students, which was scheduled to start at the end of March this year, was called off.
On April 10, Alibaba was officially cited for “two-for-one” monopoly and fined 18.228 billion yuan, the largest anti-monopoly fine in China’s history; on April 12, the Communist Party’s Central Bank, the CBRC, the SFC and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange interviewed Ant Group again.
Reuters reported that Ma’s Ant Group was split into a financial holding company by the authorities, but the central government has not yet lifted its doubts, and Ant is rumored to be studying Ma’s withdrawal of shares and handing over control, including considering transferring shares to the state, after which it will have the opportunity to re-list. Analysis of the loss of Ma’s soul, even if the Ant listed again, the valuation will fall further.
Ma’s last public appearance was to attend a meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Geographical Society convened by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On that day, Putin presided over a meeting of the supervisory board of the Russian Geographical Society, and Ma attended the meeting via video, RIA Novosti reported on April 14. In the nearly two-hour meeting, Ma did not speak throughout, occasionally lifting his cup of tea to drink tea.
After that, on April 19, the Internet video showed Ma late at night drinking and chatting with his friends in a bar.
But the video at the time, Jack Ma wearing black short sleeves and friends to drink and talk, looks good spirit, but also fat, cheeks obviously fat a circle. Some netizens speculate whether Ma Yun is obese due to the authorities targeting the Ali system and the pressure?
Jack Ma appeared in a bar last month wearing black short sleeves and gained a lot of weight. (Photo source: video screenshot)
Foreign media reported that Jack Ma’s schedule has been greatly reduced this year, flying only once a week, mainly to Beijing or Hainan.
The Wall Street Journal on April 27 again cited sources familiar with the matter as saying that Beijing’s investigation into Jack Ma did not end when Ant Group was forced to rectify the situation, but instead the focus of the scrutiny now shifts to investigating the officials involved behind Ma – the Communist government is investigating how quickly Ma’s Ant Financial Services IPO was approved by officials.
Ma’s ties to related leaders are part of the review, the sources said. The investigation reportedly means uncertainty remains about the future of Ant Financial and controlling shareholder Jack Ma. Ma is restricted from leaving the country until Anthem completes a business overhaul ordered by regulators and the government investigation is over, the sources said.
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