Alibaba founder Jack Ma, once the richest man in China before he was ruined and exiled for daring to criticize the Chinese Communist Party, paid a visit to his company’s main campus in Hangzhou on Friday.
Ma ostensibly wanted to show his support for the enterprise he launched but no longer leads, although the regime in Beijing has lately been using him as a mascot to lure spooked foreign investors back to China’s sinking economy.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) found the symbolism of Ma’s visit to Hangzhou unmistakable, especially since China is bracing for a new trade war against President-elect Donald Trump:
Ma’s visit was his first known trip back to to his hometown since March 2023, when the billionaire visited a school that he established. While Ma resigned as Alibaba’s executive chairman in 2019 and has kept a low profile since 2020, he remains widely seen as the spiritual leader of the company and the face of Chinese entrepreneurship.
His low-key visit to Alibaba’s campus comes at a time when the Chinese government is trying to boost confidence in the country’s private sector, as the world’s second-largest economy grapples with a slew of challenges, ranging from a persistent property market downturn to renewed geopolitical headwinds after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened to levy additional tariffs on Chinese imports.
The “face of Chinese entrepreneurship” disappeared abruptly in October 2020 after daring to criticize the Chinese Communist Party’s hidebound economic policies at a conference in Shanghai. […]
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