Alibaba founder Jack Ma‘s whereabouts have recently become a mystery, with no public appearances for more than two months now, raising concerns. In recent years, a number of private business owners, including Wu Xiaohui, the grandson-in-law of Deng Xiaoping, have been arrested by the authorities and some have even died in strange circumstances. Gao Yu, a senior Chinese journalist, said that Ma Yun’s fate may be worse than Wu Xiaohui’s.
Gao Yu, a veteran Chinese journalist, told the Voice of America on Jan. 10 that Ma is obviously in a bad way and his situation and fate may be worse than Wu Xiaohui’s.
According to Gao Yu, the Chinese Communist authorities want to purge Ma because of the following three reasons.
First, Ma is richer, a particularly fat “leek”, the temptation to harvest is particularly strong.
Second, Ma is involved in finance, media and entertainment industries, all of which are areas of special importance to the Chinese Communist Party.
Gao Yu said: “(Ma Yun) he is not only involved in business, he was engaged in business platform, and has a financial platform, Alipay is his. He also has media and entertainment. The entertainment industry is also propaganda in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party. Now the Ministry of Film and Television has been integrated. So he’s a big deal.”
The third is that all entrepreneurs should be honest and “usually listen to the party, not to mention not to have second thoughts.”
However, some believe that Ma may not end up as badly as Wu Xiaohui.
Wu Xiaohui, the grandson-in-law of former top Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping, was sentenced in 2018 to 18 years in prison and confiscation of recovered property to the tune of 85.7 billion yuan.
According to Derrick Scissors, an expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a U.S. think tank, Ma’s name is much louder than Wu’s, and Anbang’s behavior overseas is much more egregious than Alibaba’s. So I don’t think Jack Ma is similar to Wu Xiaohui of Anbang,” he said. But I think Ma may be similar to Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun Group, who was also detained for a time and later released.”
Jack Ma was severely criticized by the Chinese Communist Party regulators shortly after he gave a speech at the Bund Financial Summit in Shanghai on October 24, 2020, where he publicly criticized the Chinese Communist Party authorities for outdated regulation.
Subsequently, the listing of Ma’s Ant Group was urgently called off, Alibaba’s Alibaba Investment Ltd. and Tmall were each fined 500,000 yuan (RMB) for alleged monopoly; Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. was investigated for alleged monopolistic practices, and Ant Group was interviewed several times.
Previously, overseas media reported that Ma had close ties with the Communist Party’s Jiang faction. In addition to Ma’s close ties to Shanghai gang member Huang Qifan, Jiang Zemin’s grandson Jiang Zhicheng also owns shares in Alibaba.
Forbes and other foreign media reports say that Chinese tycoons are investigated for being out of touch once they are suspected of touching the political and economic stability of the authorities, and Ma is the latest case. Previously, Wang Jian, chairman of HNA Group, died in an accident in France in July 2018, Xiao Jianhua, the head of the Tomorrow System, was forcibly brought back to the mainland, and Ye Jianming, founder of China Huaxin Energy, was investigated.
Veteran commentator Tang Jingyuan told the Epoch Times that the Xi Jinping administration is packing up Ma for three reasons.
One, the Chinese Communist Party now has an empty treasury and urgently needs money. Two, Ma Yun has never belonged to Xi Jinping’s faction, Xi Jinping authorities to implement anti-monopoly investigation of Alibaba, not only to implement economic stability, but also politically can weaken the opponent. Third, the complete integration of private enterprises is a strategy established by Xi Jinping.
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