Owning a private jet can be said to be the symbol of the world’s rich and powerful, and it is also the standard, so which private jet is the most loved by the Chinese rich and powerful? According to the data previously given by Hurun Research Institute, it is Gulfstream G550, and the current topic of conversation – Jack Ma, has such a private plane.
We all know that Jack Ma from the end of last year to now, a few months has been very low-key, although the international media are shouting where Ma went, but no one knows where in the end Ma is this Time, and what is doing? Then two days ago, there is finally the latest news out, this time the British media “Financial Times” on March 12, the news is also unique, from Ma Yun’s private jet flight records, and finally came to a conclusion, the 56-year-old Chinese billionaire although recently stopped a lot, but far from the point of exit.
Flight records show Ma’s whereabouts
In its report, the Financial Times cited data given by flight tracking company Radarbox. Let’s take a look at where Jack Ma’s planes have been.
As you know, on Oct. 24 last year, Jack Ma made a high-profile criticism of China’s financial regulation at a financial summit in Shanghai, and then the Ant listing was called off not long after, so Oct. 24 is also considered to be an important point in time that triggered Jack Ma’s purge.
That in the flight records show that before that public speech in October last year, Ma almost three days to take a plane, and after that, the busy schedule slowed down significantly, to January to February this year, Ma is an average of one week to take a plane, and October after the main destination is two, one is to go to Hainan Island, remember that there are media mentioned before, someone had seen Ma in Hainan Play golf; that another destination, is Beijing. Records show that in October just after, Jack Ma went to Beijing for four days, in the evening of November 1 last year, he went from Hangzhou to Beijing, we know that the media has reported that China’s four major regulatory departments, that is, the Beijing Central Bank, the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in November 2 last year, had an urgent interview with Jack Ma, then, this point in time and Jack Ma’s flight The record is exactly right.
Immediately after that, on November 3, Ant’s listing plan was urgently called off, and after that, Jack Ma stayed in Beijing for even longer, for half a month. Then during Christmas last year, and again today at the end of January, Jack Ma visited Beijing.
For these Beijing trips, the Financial Times believes that Ma is cooperating with the investigation of the Chinese Communist Party regulators, and that the trip to Beijing was to talk to the regulators about the Ant Group’s restructuring plan.
So, what does the flight record of Jack Ma’s private jet tell us?
If it was indeed Jack Ma on the plane, then this news has denied the previous rumors of “Jack Ma being under house arrest” and “Jack Ma fleeing”, and at least confirmed that Jack Ma can still use his Gulfstream jet, but now Jack Ma has learned to keep a low profile. The first time I saw him, I had to go to the airport.
Of course, there is no way to confirm whether Jack Ma is on the plane. However, according to the Financial Times, a source close to the Communist Party’s regulator complained that Ma was able to bypass the regulator and ask for favors directly from the top. The report also mentions a friend of Ma’s who expressed the same view, believing that Ma still has the ability to reach the highest levels. The information revealed by these people also seems to corroborate with the flight records that Ma’s private plane was indeed Ma Yun, and he went to Beijing. Naturally, he went to contact the top of the Chinese Communist Party.
It seems that after October, Jack Ma has been reporting to the Chinese Communist Party’s regulators or the top brass in Beijing on a regular basis, or making reports. In any case, the Financial Times is at least one of the more convincing accounts of Ma’s whereabouts in the past few months.
So where did Jack Ma’s planes go before October? This is how the flight data depicts the Life of the Chinese billionaire. Before the ant listing was called off, Ma kept shuttling to various cities in China. From August to October, Ma visited cities such as Beijing, Kunming, Dali, Chongqing, Changsha, Fuzhou, Wuhan and Haikou. In addition to interacting with local officials, receiving awards and giving speeches, he also ate grilled lamb skewers and drank beer.
What is remarkable, however, is that just a day before the Financial Times published the whereabouts of Ma’s jet, the Wall Street Journal also came out with a lengthy article analyzing several possible outcomes for Alibaba, one of which is that Ali could face a record fine that would exceed the nearly $1 billion penalty Qualcomm received in 2015. The reason given by Chinese regulators for punishing Qualcomm at the time was also “market monopoly. Another possibility is that Alibaba will be split up, keeping Ali’s main online retail business and divesting the rest of its businesses.
The Wall Street Journal article also mentions that “China’s [Communist] leaders are currently reshaping the relationship between the leadership and the country’s Internet giants.”
But the article also mentions statements from some Alibaba employees who say “Jack Ma is the company’s biggest destabilizer.”
Could the article be suggesting that the key to reshaping Ali’s relationship with the Communist Party’s top brass is to kick Jack Ma out? It seems that the outcome Alibaba is facing is already tied to Ma’s choice.
The bizarre things that happened to Jack Ma
It is undeniable that Alibaba under Jack Ma is one of the largest and most successful in China, and even holds a place among global Internet companies.
In the position of China’s richest man, Jack Ma has been a long-time guest, and although the richest man has now changed hands to Ma Huateng, Ma’s somewhat eye-catching way of acting has always attracted attention. An English teacher born of cloth, who took the middle school exam twice, the high school exam three times and the university exam three times, would have a hard time making it to such a scale under a system like the Communist Party’s without the promotion of powerful people, no matter how smart and capable he is.
Among the white gloves of high officials, Jack Ma is also considered one of the most outstanding. At least his Alibaba has brought a more convenient life to Chinese people, and many young people are moved by the story he weaves.
Perhaps Ma is also the entrepreneur who is best at building teams and cultivating talent. Compared to Jingdong, Ali is clearly the wisdom of 36 partners, far greater than the ideas of Liu alone. And Ma Yun is tightly managed internally, he will open people on New Year’s Eve, can wield tears to cut Ma Su, let the second founder laid off, he also sent six executives to prison.
The wealthy Jack Ma also often wears a sackcloth coat, a pair of open glue off the line of black cloth shoes, if not his well-known a little ET (alien) face, I’m afraid and who brush shoulders, will be forgotten in the jianghu.
Ma also like Jin Yong’s martial arts novels, CCTV remake “laughing proud of the jianghu”, Ma also recommended himself to play the role of Feng Qingyang, but I do not know whether the director is to consider the appearance of reasons, did not use him, Ma Yun, Alibaba office area into a martial arts world. The meeting room for executives is called “Bright Top”, and Alibaba’s community is also called Warrior, Jianghu, etc. He also insisted on organizing the biennial “West Lake Sword Talk” in the IT world.
It is said that in Ali, Ma rarely interfered with the group’s specific business, mainly in doing Culture. In the early days of Alibaba, Jack Ma said: “Alibaba will be a 102-year enterprise, serving 2 billion people and spanning three centuries. He defined Alibaba as essentially a data company. The purpose of doing Taobao is not to sell goods, but to get all the data of retail and manufacturing; to do logistics is not to deliver parcels, but to combine these data together.
Jack Ma believes that in the future era, the most precious and scarce resource in the world will not be oil, it must be data. This is also the reason why Alibaba is so popular overseas.
Jack Ma is also an entrepreneur who understands politics, he knows how to “fall in love” with the government, and also knows that Chinese entrepreneurs do not have a good end, so he retired in a hurry.
So, can Ma, who is so smart and seems to have penetrated the Chinese Communist Party’s power field, still make a soft landing?
Ali makes Xi Jinping break out in a cold sweat
Let’s look at the aspects of Ma that made Xi Jinping feel like a thorn in his side. And what are the aspects that become the key to determine the fate of Alibaba.
We have mentioned that Ma is on better terms with the Jiang Family, not the current Xi Jinping-ruled Communist Party authorities. From the rumors, in 2014, Jiang Zemin’s grandson, Jiang Zhicheng, helped Ma buy back his stake in Alibaba from Yahoo, and Jiang also invested in Ant Group through Boyu Capital, so Jiang Zhicheng and Ma have a deep friendship.
Before the two sessions of the Communist Party, the Wall Street Journal broke the news that Jiang Zhicheng’s Boyu Capital had left Hong Kong and gone to Singapore. At a time when Xi Jinping is tightening his grip on Hong Kong and the financial system, Jiang’s family quickly shifted their capital and withdrew from Hong Kong. From this point of view, then, things may not look good for Jack Ma, who has a deep friendship with Jiang’s family, either.
In addition, the Wall Street Journal mentioned that Alibaba did something that made Xi Jinping break out in a cold sweat.
In May of last year, someone wrote a report to the Communist Party’s Internet Information Office that said, “Alibaba is using capital to manipulate public opinion.
What was this about? Do you still remember the incident last year involving Jiang Fan, the president of Ali’s Tmall? In April last year, news about Jiang Fan’s cheating suddenly appeared on Weibo, and in less than an hour, a large number of posts related to this news were deleted.
But who is qualified to do this kind of massive online deletion in China? Not Weibo, but the CCP’s Internet Information Office, which is the CCP’s State Internet Information Office, but, without the directive of the Internet Information Office, Weibo did it on its own. I’m afraid this is something Xi Jinping didn’t expect, that under the centralized power of the CCP, a company could have the same power as the CCP’s minion department!
We should mention here the relationship between this Weibo and Alibaba, which is the second largest shareholder of Weibo, holding 30% of Sina Weibo’s shares. The Wall Street Journal says that sources have revealed that it was Alibaba that instructed Weibo to take the censoring action. This may be evidence that Alibaba is “using capital to manipulate public opinion”.
In addition to the two things mentioned earlier, Alibaba’s large database is also a resource that the CCP must have. For the CCP, all information about the people of the party and state must be under its absolute control, and it certainly cannot insert an enterprise to manage it, unless this enterprise is also completely controlled by the CCP.
Yesterday, the mainland media reported that Xi Jinping presided over the ninth meeting of the CPC Finance and Economics Committee, which mentioned the need to “strengthen the construction of the data property rights system and strengthen the responsibility of platform enterprises for data security,” and stressed the need to “enrich the anti-monopoly regulatory force, enhance regulatory authority, and financial activities To all into the financial supervision.”
Xi Jinping said these words, I think China’s fintech giants are trembling in fear, especially the last mention of “financial activities should be incorporated into financial supervision”, that is, the Chinese Communist Party absolutely must strictly control everything. Therefore, the pace of “reshaping relations” between these Chinese tech giants and the top echelons of the Communist Party will definitely accelerate and intensify, and many more stories may happen in the future.
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