New Delhi: Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who has rarely been seen in public for the past three years, has reappeared at a school in Hangzhou. Jack Ma, 58, criticized China’s financial regulators in 2020. After that, there were speculations that he had ‘disappeared’. He had almost ceased to appear in public. Ma was the most high-profile Chinese billionaire to disappear following a crackdown on tech entrepreneurs. According to Chinese media reports, Jack Ma has returned to China after spending more than a year abroad.
Chinese media claims – China’s billionaire stayed in Hong Kong for some time
An Alibaba-owned newspaper said Jack Ma briefly stayed in Hong Kong, where he met friends and also briefly visited Art Basel, an international art fair. It added that Ma has been traveling to different countries to learn about agricultural technology. However, the newspaper did not mention in its report why Ma had not appeared in public in recent years.
Ma, once China’s richest man, gave up control of the financial technology company Ant Group in January this year. This was seen by some commentators as evidence that Ma had come under fire from the Chinese Communist Party for being outspoken and very powerful.
Jack Ma was rarely seen after October 2020
In October 2020, Ma said at a financial conference that traditional banks have a pawn shop mentality. Ant’s plan to launch an IPO worth 26 billion yen next month, which would have been the world’s largest, was canceled at the last minute by Chinese authorities.
The reason behind this decision was said to be some disturbances prevailing in the company. Since then, he had almost stopped appearing in public. However, during this time Jack Ma was reported to have been seen in various countries including Spain, Netherlands, Thailand, and Australia. In November last year, the Financial Times newspaper reported that Ma had been living in Tokyo, Japan for six months. When Ma stopped appearing in public, it was rumored that he had been placed under house arrest or detained.
