Jack Ma is not missing and has not been taken by Chinese authorities, CNBC’s David Faber reported Tuesday.
The billionaire founder of Alibaba has not been seen for months. Many media outlets have reported that Ma is “missing,” giving rise to speculation about whether he had been arrested or fled the country after giving a speech in October that was severely critical of China’s financial system and banks. The country’s banking system is closely tied to the government and run by top Communist Party officials.
“He’s not showing up but he’s not missing. He hasn’t been captured. He hasn’t been taken,” Faber said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
Faber said that Ma was “being less visible” after running “afoul of the government” by giving his October speech. Faber did not identify the source of his information.
“The October 24th speech just went too far. And like a lot of people over there, he understands that you have to—as it was explained to me—lay down and roll over. Just say, ‘No. You’re not going to hear from me,'” Faber said.
In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping personally kiboshed the IPO for MA’s Jack Ma’s Ant Group, a fintech company that sought to challenge the established financial systems in China and around the world. Chinese officials announced in November that they were launching an antitrust investigation of the company, a signal that Ma had fallen out of favor with the ruling clique.
Ma is the most well-known businessman in China and is synonymous with success and innovation, known to online admirers as ‘Daddy Ma.’ Many China watchers believe that Ma’s popularity and growing cult-of-personality was increasingly perceived as a threat or potential counterweight to Xi’s authority.
Faber described Ma’s disappearance from the public eye as an attempt to show his own loyalty and humility, to signal that he is not a threat to Xi or the Communist Party. Ma is reportedly a member of the Communist Party himself.
“So that is the case. Is he not going to show up to things? Yeah. Is he not going to put himself into any position where he could be speaking? Yeah. He’s not going to do that. It could be months. But that doesn’t mean that he’s missing,” Faber reported.
Faber has interviewed Ma a number of times over the years and is arguably the American reporter closest to the Chinese businessman. Faber mentioned in his report that he has also frequently interviewed Alibaba executive chairman Joe Tsai, Jack Ma’s longtime friend and business associate.
Ma has pushed the line with China’s government in the past, including a very public meeting with then-President-elect Donald Trump in January 2017 at Trump Tower.