news unrolled

Post: After a long absence from an audience, the founder of Alibaba makes a public appearance in China

Categories

Jack Ma, founder of Chinese giant Alibaba, made another public appearance in China on Monday after months of traveling, visiting a school in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, where the company is based.

Ma founded e-commerce company Alibaba in the 1990s and was once China’s richest man. But he has kept a low profile and reduced public appearances since November 2020 after publicly criticizing China’s financial authorities and supervisory systems during a speech in Shanghai.

Soon after, authorities froze the initial public offering of Alibaba’s financial subsidiary, Ant Group, which planned to raise $34.5 billion in what was then the world’s largest equity offering. Subsequently, Alibaba was investigated and fined $2.8 billion for violating antitrust rules, at a time when Chinese authorities cracked down on a technology sector that had leeway.

Ma has spent the last year travelling, with reports of her being spotted in Europe, Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong.

On Monday, Ma visited the Yongu School in Hangzhou, where he talked about new technologies such as ChatGPT. He also referred to her passion for learning.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Beijing is taking the pressure off

The Chinese government is trying to boost confidence in the private sector after the repressive regulatory measures it has imposed on sectors such as technology, education, online gaming and financial companies, as well as the tight restrictions imposed by China to limit the spread of the coronavirus. , which caused a sharp slowdown in economic growth.

And earlier this month, China’s newly appointed Premier Li Qiang tried to reassure business people and investors that the government would provide “continuous” support to the private sector. He said the commitment to do so was “unequivocal and unwavering”.

Ma stepped down as chairman of Alibaba in 2019, saying he hoped to focus on philanthropy. In January, Ma also relinquished control of fintech Ant amid a shareholder restructuring.

In the same month, a senior official at China’s central bank said the government’s crackdown on the Internet technology sector was “in principle over.”

Source: EuroNews

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *