What happened to Jack Ma? Since the tech billionaire annoyed Chinese President Xi Jinping last year, he has almost vanished. But his disappearance is a sign of something much bigger on.ft.com/3aeih7H
Ma founded tech giant Alibaba in 1999. Hundreds of millions of people every day now use his companies’ services for everything from buying coffee to getting loans ft.com/content/1fe055…
Ma’s cult-like following helped him build unrivalled influence for a businessman in China — but President Xi has been tightening control. Billionaires’ run-ins with the state are now so frequent that their new rule is: lie low ft.com/content/1fe055…
Things came to a head last autumn with a speech Ma gave in Shanghai. His comments, setting private enterprise’s interests against those of the state, angered the very top of the Chinese Communist party ft.com/content/1fe055…
After his speech the government called off the $37bn flotation of Ma’s Ant Group. Ma himself lost about $10bn – and then disappeared ft.com/content/1fe055…
The contest between Ma and Xi captures the contradiction at the heart of modern China – the Communist party’s wary embrace of the capitalists who power the country’s economic growth ft.com/content/1fe055…
The question of what is next for Jack Ma is far from certain — but the answer will reveal much about where capitalism in China is heading. Read on to find out more: ft.com/content/1fe055…
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