Alibaba founder Jack Ma, once a flamboyant celebrity and the richest man in China until he criticized Chinese Communist Party economic policies, left his low-profile refuge in Japan this week to visit Thailand and learn about farming, fishing, and kickboxing.
Chinese state media hinted over the weekend that Ma is being forced out of Alibaba’s parent company, the Ant Group, so he will have plenty of time to work on his hobbies.
Ma’s downfall began in October 2020, when he offered some trenchant public criticism of China’s hidebound regulatory policies at a forum in Shanghai. The Chinese Communist Party does not like trenchant public criticism, especially from a high-flying billionaire who might think he has become more famous, respected, and important than tyrant Xi Jinping and his top officials.
Ma accordingly disappeared for about three months, shocking observers accustomed to seeing the ebullient tech CEO constantly pop into the spotlight, as everything from a would-be rock guitarist to a game show host. He was incredibly subdued when he finally returned to public view and soon he vanished again, resurfacing in Japan last month in what appeared to be self-imposed exile.
Ma’s corporate empire was dismantled by Chinese regulators, who chopped away over half his fortune and most of his voting rights at the Ant Group. The story China once proudly touted of a rags-to-riches entrepreneur became the story of a riches-to-rags dissident.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) noted Ma’s movements over the past few weeks have been carefully watched for clues to the fate of his company and career. The 58-year-old mogul has already resigned from most of his corporate positions, and on Saturday, the Ant Group said he would finally surrender the last of his control over its operations.
Ma appears to be devoting himself to international humanitarian work, after cleaning up a little Alibaba corporate business in Thailand and bidding farewell to his charities in China:
According to people familiar with Ma’s schedule, the Chinese entrepreneur has recently shifted his attention to farming technologies. Ma also visited a university in the Netherlands to learn how to improve sustainable food production in July 2022, following a similar European tour the year before to further his interest in agriculture.
He visited several research institutes in the Netherlands in October 2021 to acquaint himself with food-related technology including agricultural infrastructure, plant breeding, and the training of expertise in the field, according to people familiar with his plans.
In Japan, he spent time studying fishery and tuna farming, extending his interest in sustainable agriculture and the food industry. In his latest trip in Thailand, Ma visited a sea shrimp farming factory in the southeast Asian country, according to the people familiar with his schedule.
China’s state-run Global Times on Sunday quoted an Ant Group statement that said plans were underway to “optimize corporate government” in several ways, including a change to voting procedures that nullifies almost all of Ma’s influence over the company he founded:
Jack Ma was the control person owning a 34 percent stake of a Hangzhou-based consultancy company, a partner of two equity investment firms holding an aggregate of 53.46 percent of Ant’s shares. Therefore, he could indirectly control the voting rights represented by Ant’s 53.46 percent of shares through the consultancy company.
After the adjustment, the two investment firms will independently exercise voting rights. Jack Ma will control 31.04 percent of Ant’s shares together with four shareholders via holding 20 percent of the equity interest in one of the investment firms.
As a result, his voting power will decline from 53.46 percent to 6.208 percent.
Alibaba stock rose about five percent in U.S. markets and nine percent in Hong Kong on the news that Ma would no longer control the company, in part because of the perception that Chinese Communist regulators will back away from tormenting the company. Even with the stock bump, the Ant Group’s valuation is still less than half of its $300 billion peak in the fall of 2020 — before Ma gave his fateful speech in Shanghai.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) predicted on Monday that Ma riding off into the sunset of Thailand to spend his twilight years fishing and kickboxing could mark the conclusion of Xi Jinping’s crackdown on the Chinese tech industry.
“The Communist Party is anxious about a proliferation of businesses that connect Chinese citizens to each other and to resources (such as capital, in the case of fintech Ant) and collect data on users without state oversight and direction. Online tutoring and food-delivery firms are among the many others that have joined Ant in the dock,” the WSJ observed.
“Mr. Ma’s forced exit is a warning to other Chinese entrepreneurs that they can grow their businesses and their own profiles as much as the Party allows and no more,” the WSJ concluded, advising foreign investors to think long and hard about what might happen to them if the Chinese Communist Party decides they are making too much money, growing too popular with the public, or giving Chinese subjects too many ways to evade state oversight.
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