Alibaba founder Jack Ma made his first public appearance in China in months. The billionaire’s reappearance may suggest that Beijing is softening its stance on the tech sector after an 18-month crackdown.
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Alibaba founder Jack Ma has been spotted in China after spending months abroad, a possible sign that Beijing is warming up to the tech giants again after roughly 18 months of suppressing the sector.
Ma visited Yungu School in Hangzhou, town where Alibaba is headquartered, to talk to teachers about how to provide education to children within the AI era, according to a WeChat school post.
The billionaire said technologies like the favored ChatGPT have brought challenges to education, but AI may very well be used to solve the issues, according to a WeChat post.
That is Ma’s first public appearance in China since last yr. Ma has traveled outside of China prior to now few months and has been spotted in Spain, Japan and Thailand.
Ma’s re-emergence follows an intense crackdown on his empire that began in late 2020 when Ant Group, the billionaire’s financial technology firm, was forced to shelve its massive listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Ma made comments that appeared to be critical of China’s financial watchdog before the listing was recalled.
Beijing then tightened regulations for the domestic sector. Alibaba, an organization founded by Ma, was fined $2.6 billion in antitrust in 2021.
Ant Group undergoes reform under the supervision of China’s central bank to comply with regulations, while Ma slowly relinquishes control of the fintech company.
China’s tightening of regulations on the tech sector has stoked investors’ fears that President Xi Jinping is popping against private enterprise and entrepreneurs.
But China has struggled with weak economic growth over the past yr due to its now abandoned zero-COVID-19 policy. Meanwhile, Beijing worked to revive the economy. Allowing Ma to return to the fold could also be Beijing’s recognition that it needs private corporations to accomplish that.
“Getting economic growth back on course might be the most important political priority [Communist] In the intervening time, party faces and a more optimistic business class is the important thing to that,” Xin Sun, senior lecturer in Chinese and East Asian business at King’s College London, told CNBC in an email.
Sun said he suspected that there was “some kind of deal” between Ma and the federal government for him to return and appear in public.
“By doing so, the federal government intends to signal its cordial approach to the private sector and investors – if even Jack Ma is seen as pardoned, everyone else should feel secure and welcome,” Sun said.
There are other signs that Beijing is loosening a few of its regulatory tightening within the sector. For instance, regulators license foreign games to be released in China. And the Chinese company Didi, which faced a cybersecurity probe by regulators and was forced to withdraw from the Latest York Stock Exchange, has signaled it wants to expand its operations.