Amid the mysterious disappearance of Chinese Billionaire Jack Ma from public view after criticising China’s regulators and state run banks, now the Chinese government is considering nationalisation of Jack Ma’s Alibaba and the Ant Group. This comes in the backdrop of China initiating an investigation to probe Ant Group.
Jack Ma, the founder of Ant Group, is said to have earned the wrath of Chinese leadership for launching a public attack on the country’s financial watchdogs, regulatory landscape and state-owned banks. During an address he delivered at Bund Summit in Shanghai on 24 Oct 2020, Ma criticised the regulatory system for stifling innovation and called for a new set of regulatory reform to fuel growth. The speech is said to have angered Chinese leadership and set off a chain of events that torpedoed the listing of Ant. Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group who has a net worth of $60 billion has been named as a “money-grabbing vampire who exploits the poor”, by Chinese state outlets. Last month, China released draft regulations to clamp down on anti-competitive practices in the industry, such as signing exclusive agreements with merchants and the use of subsidies to squeeze out competitors.
