Jack Ma is constantly being hounded by the authorities. After Alibaba affiliate Ant Group was interviewed by the Chinese Communist Party regulator in early November and halted its listing plan, the financial regulator will interview Ant Group again.
The official website of the People’s Bank of China announced today that the People’s Bank of China, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and State Administration of Foreign Exchange will interview Ant Group in the near future to “urge and guide Ant Group to implement the requirements of financial regulation, fair competition and protection of consumers’ legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the principles of marketization and rule of law, and to regulate the operation and development of financial business”.
The official media “Economic Daily” reported today that Ant Group will be interviewed for the second time, “which shows that regulating the development of the platform economy has become urgent, and also once again shows the serious attitude and firm determination of the regulator to strengthen supervision and promote the healthy development of the platform economy”.
In addition, on the morning of December 24, the Xinhua Viewpoint sent out a flash report that the General Administration of Market Supervision (GAM) had recently opened a case to investigate Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. for alleged monopolistic practices such as “choosing one over the other” based on reports.
Alibaba affiliate Ant Group responded that it received the notice of interview from the regulator today, “We will seriously study and strictly comply with the requirements of the regulator and do a good job of implementing the relevant work without compromise.”
On November 2, three days before Ant Group’s originally scheduled IPO, Anthem’s four major shareholders, including Jack Ma, were interviewed by four major Chinese Communist Party regulators. The following day, Ant Group was ordered by the Chinese Communist Party authorities to suspend its IPO. Subsequently, the Communist Party issued new regulations to regulate Internet microfinance and prevent economic monopoly on platforms; on the eve of the “double 11 Online Shopping Festival,” Taobao was also hit by the official media.
On December 17, Free Asia quoted a source as disclosing that the central government had sent a joint investigation team to Alibaba Group, and at the same time, the bidding plan for the Yunnan branch of Lakeside University, which Ma was planning to build, was called off.
On December 18, all deposit products of the interwebs on the Ant platform were taken down by the regulator without warning.
The sources quoted by China Watch disclosed that after the suspension of Ant Group’s IPO plan, Ma was deeply upset, and in addition to actively admitting mistakes to the authorities and releasing goodwill, the group’s top management was constantly trying to find ways to break out and public relations upward.
The source also said that Ma also foresaw the crisis is not trivial, Ma has been temporarily side control in late October. The crisis is not simply solved by money, Xi Jinping pressed the nuclear button at the last second, knocking the forces behind Ma Yun’s meaning is very obvious.
Earlier, senior commentator Jiang Qingping wrote an article in Taiwan‘s Caixin News, quoting a Chinese central media financial news director as saying, “Do you believe that an English teacher can become the richest man in China after starting with absolutely nothing and without the help of the Chinese Communist Party?”
Jiang Qingping said Ma, a native of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, has close ties to former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who made his fortune at the end of Jiang’s term and grew during Hu Jintao’s tenure, which was completely hollowed out by the Jiang faction, during which Taobao and Alipay were founded and quickly cornered the market.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese Communist Party officials with inside knowledge revealed that the suspension of Ant Group’s IPO was personally instructed by Xi Jinping. The reason was precisely because Ma’s comments had angered Zhongnanhai.
The report also said that Xi has become increasingly intolerant of large private companies with growing capital and influence, which are seen as a threat to Xi’s dominance, and that the suspension of Ant Group’s IPO was a general outbreak of tension between Ma and the Communist government over the years.
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