After reports that China’s most famous billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has been missing in action for weeks, it has come to light that he is ’embracing supervision’. This has fuelled speculations that one of the world’s richest men, Ma is either arrested or placed under house arrest. China has a track record of not revealing information on arrests of big personalities, so ’embracing supervision’ could well mean jail.
According to Hong Kong-based The Asia Times Jack Ma is ’embracing supervision’. Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily is also reporting on similar lines. Chinese media reported that Jack Ma has been ordered not to leave the country. In November, the People’s Daily had slammed Jack Ma saying that it was impossible for him to achieve so much success with Alibaba without the Chinese government’s policies: “Ma Yun is savvy, but without the support of national policies, Ali will not be able to become a trillion business empire.”
Coinciding with his disappearance is Chinese state-owned media’s heated up online vitriol against Ma, which has suddenly increased. After Ma’s recent wrangle with China’s authoritarian regime over the regulatory issues, Chinese media outlets have desperately tried to change his image from “Uncle Horse” (Ma in Chinese means horse)” to a cruel and money-grabbing “vampire” businessman. He is being posed as the one who loves to exploit the poor in various government-leaning media outlets.
Jack Ma is ’embracing supervision’, Hong Kong-based The Asia Times has quoted Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily as saying. He has been ordered not to leave the country. The People’s Daily in a November piece also said Ma couldn’t take Alibaba to such heights without the Chinese government’s policies: “Ma Yun is savvy, but without the support of national policies, Ali will not be able to become a trillion business empire.”
Ma has not made any public appearance since November 2020, which has raised eyebrows over his whereabouts. He didn’t even appear in the final episode of his own talent show, ‘Africa’s Business Heroes’, which gives budding African entrepreneurs an opportunity to compete to win $1.5 million.
