Founder and former CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Jack Ma, has been living in Tokyo, Japan, for almost six months. That reports the British business newspaper ‘Financial Times’.
Ma suddenly disappeared from the radar for nearly three months after criticizing the Chinese authorities between late 2020 and early 2021. He then resurfaced in online video praising the work of teachers in rural China.
According to the Financial Times, Ma now leads a very discreet life in Japan. For example, he reportedly only visits a few very exclusive private clubs in the Japanese capital and occasionally takes trips to the countryside with his family. Since 2021 he has visited Spain and the Netherlands. According to the newspaper, he also visited the United States and Israel a few times.
Ma was the most famous businessman in China and the symbol of the self-made man for many of his compatriots. But in October 2020, Alibaba’s CEO openly attacked China’s financial watchdog.
Shortly thereafter, Beijing blocked the IPO of Ant Group, a former subsidiary of Alibaba specializing in financial technology, at the last minute. And Alibaba was later fined 2.8 billion dollars (more than 2.5 billion euros at the time) for anti-competitive practices in China. Entrepreneur Ma then suddenly disappeared from the radar for almost three months.
According to the latest ranking of major Chinese fortunes, compiled in November by the Hurun firm, Jack Ma dropped from fifth to ninth this year. Last year he lost 29 percent of his assets, to 25.7 billion dollars (a comparable amount in euros). Until 2020, he was still the richest man in China.
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