Looking for Jack Ma desperately.
The most famous and high profile Chinese billionaire has been absent for more than two months.
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the founder of the Chinese giant Alibaba has come to light during ... a reality show, the British Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday (January 3rd).
All against a backdrop of tensions between the Chinese tech icon and the Beijing regime.
Jack Ma was replaced as judge for the last episode of "Africa's Business Heroes", a show to the glory of African entrepreneurs that he himself had created, confirms the Financial Times.
The show, which was originally scheduled to air in late November, was postponed until the spring and producers confirmed Jack Ma's absence, officially due to a "scheduling conflict."
Silence on Twitter
But the billionaire didn't just miss the last of his show.
His name has also been deleted from "Africa's Business Heroes" website, and the promotional clip for this reality show no longer makes any reference to the founder of Alibaba.
A purge that does not fit well with the explanation of a simple scheduling problem.
Especially since Jack Ma has also disappeared from Twitter, a medium he particularly likes.
His last post on the microblogging platform dates back to October 10.
Asked by several media about this strange radio silence, Alibaba refused to comment on the "rumors" about this increasingly visible disappearance.
While no one seems to know where the Chinese billionaire is, many fear that he has suffered the full brunt of Beijing's wrath.
Jack Ma has not given any sign of life since a surprisingly critical speech against the authorities delivered in Shanghai on October 24, 2020. In front of an audience of Chinese entrepreneurs and politicians, he notably attacked Chinese public banks and called for the establishment of a "healthier financial system".
"It is a speech that cost him at least 35 billion dollars," said Nina Xiang, director of the China Money Network, in a column published on the site of the professional social network LinkedIn.
A week later, the government effectively failed the IPO of Ant Group, Jack Ma's financial services company, which was expected to bring in $ 35 billion.
Shortly afterwards, the authorities drove the point home with the opening of an investigation into abuse of dominant position against Ant Group and publicly called for a restructuring of the group to make it less powerful.
Disappearances of billionaires
This offensive was widely seen as a wake-up call to Jack Ma. "The Chinese Communist Party thus reminds you that no matter how rich or successful you are, it can take everything away from you with a snap of your fingers if you take too much freedom. ", wrote in early November Bill Bishop, author of Sinocism, a highly respected newsletter devoted to Chinese news.
But Jack Ma may have lost more than money in this matter.
"When I heard about Jack Ma's problems with the authorities, I immediately thought of the wave of disappearance of Chinese billionaires between 2015 and 2017," notes economist Mike O'Sullivan on his blog.
During this period, more than a dozen influential businessmen - including Guo Guangchang, the boss of Club Med - had "vanished" for several weeks before reappearing publicly just as mysteriously by assuring either that they had had personal problems, or they had "collaborated with the authorities".
It was the heyday of the anti-corruption campaign led by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Beijing appears to have once again decided to put pressure on Chinese business leaders.
At least two other influential businessmen, besides Jack Ma, have recently understood the cost of criticizing the regime too much, recalls Le Monde.
In September, it is Sun Dawu, the founder of one of the most important chicken producers in the country, who is arrested after denouncing on social networks the "corruption" of local councilors.
Two months later, Li Huaiqing, a wealthy banker, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fraud and "inciting to subvert state power."
He too had allowed himself to accuse several influential members of the Communist Party of corruption.
Sanctions which intervene while the power published, in mid-September, a directive aiming to better control the private sector.
"This document calls for the first time on private entrepreneurs to strengthen loyalty and respect for the Party. It also stresses the importance of the ideological and political education of private bosses. It was never so clear in the past. previous documents, "said Kellee Tsai, professor of social sciences at the University of Science and Technology of Hong Kong, interviewed by Le Monde.
Unlike other businessmen, Jack Ma has not been officially arrested or charged with anything.
"The authorities are perhaps taking more tweezers with such an important personality," notes economist Mike O'Sullivan.
We may know a little more when he reappears.
Unless he falls into the category of business leaders who have had "personal problems".
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