The Chinese authorities have declared war on Jack Ma

Xi Jinping was outraged by the businessman’s dissatisfaction with the rules governing the country’s high-tech industry.

Chinese President Xi Jinping personally ordered to suspend the placement of shares in the financial and technology company Ant Group (a subsidiary of Alibaba), which entered the Chinese stock market. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing sources on Friday, November 13.

Xi Jinping’s discontent was sparked by Jack Ma’s speech in Shanghai on October 24, when he summoned the president of the People’s Republic of China and criticized the rules governing the country’s high-tech industry.

“Success doesn’t have to come from me,” Ma said at the time, adding that he wants to help China solve financial difficulties through innovation.

In turn, Xi Jinping sees such statements as an attempt by Ma to strengthen his personal reputation and question the actions of China’s regulatory authorities.

“Xi doesn’t care if you are on the list of the richest people or not. He cares what you do when you get rich and if you correlate your interests with the interests of the state,” said one of the high-ranking officials. Chinese officials.

As the newspaper notes, relations between Ma and the Chinese government have been tense for many years: the authorities are concerned about the influence of the businessman and the rapid growth of the company he controls.

At the same time, Ant Group’s listing on the stock exchange could be the largest IPO in history and break Saudi Aramco’s record of $ 29.4 billion, set at the end of 2019. However, on 3 November, the Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended the listing of the company. The next day, it emerged that the China Securities Regulatory Committee approved the suspension of listing due to “changes in the conditions of financial and technical supervision”, saying that the hasty placement conflicts with the principles of doing business, based In legal regulations of the state regulation system.

As a reminder, the founder of Alibaba is no longer the richest in China. The head of online game distribution Tencent has surpassed Jack Ma in the ranking of the world’s billionaires.

It was also reported that Alibaba raised a record $ 75 billion on Singles’ Day. The company hit the $ 38 billion mark last year in the first half hour of sales.

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