Alibaba faces scrutiny from Chinese govt, where is Jack Ma?

The suddence disappearance of Jack Ma, China’s famous businessman and one of the world’s richest men amid scrutiny by the Chinese government has led to several speculations.

According to reports Ma has not been seen in public for several weeks and notably an executive of Alibaba replaced him in his own talent show, Africa’s Business Heroes. A company spokesperson had claimed that Jack Ma couldn’t appear on the show due to a conflict in schedules.

People’s Daily reported that Jack Ma has been damned as a money-grabbing vampire who exploits people. The report even asserted that Ma is embracing supervision at an undisclosed location.

According to the reports, Jack Ma wouldn’t be the first high profile individual to disappear as there have been a few billionaires in China who suddenly disappeared.

During China’s anti-corruption drive between 2016 and 2017, number of billionaires went missing. While some reappeared and claimed that they were helping the authorities, others never came back.

Jack Ma’s disappearance is likely to be related to the Financial issues of Ant Financial Group.

Alibaba and Ant group, founded and guided by Jack Ma are currently faced with antitrust probe for alleged monopolistic practices.

Reports cite that Alibaba had been warned by the regulators for its practice where “merchants are required to sign exclusive cooperation pacts preventing them from offering products on rival platforms.”

In November 2020, Alibaba and Ant Group’s $37 billion initial public offering was suspended by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, raising concerns over the growth of online lending and its capacity to destabilise China’s financial system.

An anti-monopoly investigation has been launched into Alibaba.

Jack Ma came under intense scrutiny following his criticism where he called the banks in China as “pawn shops”.