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Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –
Pendiri platform e-commerce Alibaba, Jack Ma, allegedly disappeared after not being seen in public for the past few weeks.
One of the richest people in bamboo curtain country has also been inactive on Twitter for nearly three months.
The unknown existence of Jack Ma is said to have occurred after criticizing the Chinese government regarding the country’s financial regulation system at a fintech event in Sanghai on October 24, 2020.
At an event also attended by China’s top official, Jack Ma criticized China’s state banking system and called for reform.
The 56-year-old even said that Chinese banks operate with a ‘pawn shop’ mentality.
The speech came just weeks before the scheduled initial public offering (IPO) of Ant Group, a Jack Ma-owned fintech company.
Ant’s IPO is forecast to be the largest IPO in history, reaching $ 35 billion or about Rs 485.9 trillion.
Jack Ma’s criticism appears to upset the Chinese government.
In a Wall Street Journal report, a senior Chinese official with an anonymous identity said that President Xi Jinping was very angry after hearing Jack Ma’s speech.
Xi is said to have immediately ordered Chinese regulators to investigate Ant Group.
Before long, the country’s regulatory authority Bamboo Curtain also suspended Ant Group’s IPO a few days before the expiration date.
According to sources WSJ, Xi personally asked to stop the Ant Group IPO.
It was revealed by a high-ranking Chinese official who was aware of the problem.
The suspension of Ant Group’s IPO has been the height of tension between the Xi Jinping and Jack Ma administrations in recent years.
Jack Ma is known to be often loud and vocal in his criticism of the government.
Many senior Chinese officials are uncomfortable with the influence and rapid growth of Jack Ma’s company.
“Xi doesn’t care if you are on the rich list or not. What matters to him is what you do after you get rich and if you want to ally yourself with the interests of the government,” said a Chinese official.
According to WJS sources, Chinese regulators are said to have wanted to control Ant Group for a long time. The company has a mobile payment system and a lifestyle app known as Alipay.
Chinese officials believe that Alipay interferes with the country’s financial system. So far, Alipay is used by more than 70 percent of China’s population. The platform has made loans to more than 20 million Chinese small businesses and nearly 500 million people.
However, these efforts are quite challenging. Some of Ma’s supporters, including top Chinese government officials, politicians, and businessmen, have resisted the Xi administration’s efforts to curb the Ant Group.
Without stopping there, President Xi continued to complicate Ant Group’s growth by tightening general financial rules after the stock market crashed in 2015.
“The relationship between Ant Group and the Chinese government has always been very complicated,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University and former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) China division.
Prasad said Jack Ma’s speech in October “served as a trigger for the government to act.”
Jack Ma is known to have retired as the founder and CEO of Alibaba in September 2019. Although he is no longer involved in the company’s operations, Ma serves on the board of directors until 2020.
He celebrated his last day with a concert by a rock band attended by 40,000 Alibaba and Ant Group employees.
(rds / evn)
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