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Jack Ma has resurfaced after months of public opinion sparking intense speculation about the fate of the billionaire who is struggling with increasing research on his internet empire.
According to people familiar with the matter, China’s most recognizable teacher addressed via livestream on Wednesday during an annual event he presents to recognize teachers in rural areas. In a video of the event distributed online, Mom talked about how he would spend more time on philanthropy. The co-founder of Alibaba and Ant did not mention his recent run-up to Beijing during his speech, which was first reported in a local blog. Ant confirmed the authenticity of the video by email.
Alibaba’s shares rose more than 4% in Hong Kong. Although it is still unclear where Ma is, his appearance in a public forum could help suppress persistent rumors about his fate while Beijing investigates online funding titan. Ant Group Co en Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The executive has been out of the public eye since early November, when Chinese regulators torpedoed Ant’s $ 35 billion stock market, tightened finech regulations, then ordered an overhaul of Ant and launched a separate antitrust investigation into Alibaba has – all within a span of days.
“Recently, my colleagues and I studied and thought. “We have taken a firmer resolution to dedicate ourselves to philanthropy in education,” Ma said in the video. “Our generation of business people is the responsibility to work hard for rural revitalization and common prosperity.
Read more: Jack Ma goes silent after the spectacular undoing of the Ant group
The onslaught on Ma’s billion-dollar corporate empire includes a broader campaign to overthrow a generation of Chinese technology giants that Beijing now considers to be the world’s no. 2-economy to curb. The spate of actions against his twin companies has driven home how Beijing has lost patience with the extraordinary power of its technology moguls, who are now seen as a threat to the political and financial stability that President Xi Jinping praises the most.
The government has increasingly sought to influence the growing extent to which companies from Tencent Holdings Ltd. On ByteDance Ltd. collect data and direct trade and media. In the same month, Ant turned off its record-breaking IPO, the country’s largest antitrust watchdog published new guidelines warning technology giants against monopolistic practices from forced exclusive arrangements to collusion over data. While Ant and Alibaba have borne the brunt of the assault since November, investors have since sold counterparts from Tencent to Meituan.
Mom’s position with Beijing remains unclear. A person familiar with the matter, in early December, advised the man strongest with the meteoric rise of China Inc. characterized, to continue. The debate over where he originated arose because Beijing in the past kept silent billionaires who violated the law without being immediately tried.
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(Updates with comments from the speech from the second paragraph)