Alibaba founder Jack Ma reappeared in China on Monday, March 27. He went to a school in Hangzhou, in the Zhejiang province.
The images put an end to more than a year in which Ma was out of his country, allegedly due to discrepancies over how the Chinese government began to pressure private companies in that country.
The whereabouts of the tycoon had returned to the media this weekend, when Bloomberg published that Ma had chosen to stay outside of China despite pressure from Xi Jinping to return as a way to build greater confidence among businessmen.
However, hours later, the Chinese media Yungu published that the founder of Alibaba visited a school financed by the holding company in Hangzhou.
Minutes later, the Bloomberg article was updated to reflect Ma’s reappearance in China, where He talked about how ChatGPT poses great challenges for education.
Jack Ma around the world
Ma has disappeared from the media eye since he criticized Chinese regulators nearly years ago, when he accused state-owned banks of having a “pawnshop mentality.”
Since then, the two companies he created, Alibaba and Ant, the e-commerce giant’s financial arm, have had serious regulatory difficulties staying in business.
Among other things, Chinese regulators canceled Ant’s successful $37 billion IPO and fined Alibaba $2.8 billion for monopoly, a record for sanctions in that country.
Since he stopped giving public lectures and his whereabouts began to be suspected, Ma has been seen in other parts of the world, such as Spain, the Netherlands and Uruguay, but it was never reliably confirmed.
Being away from China also allowed the tycoon to avoid the harsh covid-19 quarantines imposed on anyone entering the country.
next objectives
Ma’s comeback comes as China’s tech companies face strong (unprecedented, by the way) pressure in the West.
Last week, the United States Congress questioned the CEO of ByteDance (TikTok), Shou Zi Chew, in a hearing that lasted more than four hours.
The questions and their answers revealed irreconcilable differences between the two powers.
TikTok is not the only one with problems, apparently, the next objective is to “close Shein”, according to some international media.
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