Chinese billionaire Jack Ma suspected missing: When did he criticise Chinese govt and what did he say?

Team Udayavani, Jan 5, 2021, 2:02 PM IST

Chinese tech billionaire and Alibaba Co-founder Jack Ma has reportedly not been seen in public for over two months after he came in conflict with President Xi Jinping-led Central Communist Party government.

It is said that Jack Ma was scheduled to appear for the filming of his own talent show, Africa’s Business Heroes but was instead replaced by another Alibaba executive.

Billionaire Jack Ma criticised Chinese regulators in October 2020, called Chinese banks “pawn shops” and said China’s biggest risk is that it “lacks financial ecosystem”.

His criticism of the Chinese authorities cost him big at the time. Since then, Chinese officials have turned the heat against him.

Days later, $35-billion IPO of his Ant Group on the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges, set to be the world’s biggest, was halted by regulators. They ordered Ant Group to return to its ‘payments origin’. The country’s government has also launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Alibaba in December 2020