Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who fell into disgrace after criticizing the Chinese authorities, continued to use a private jet to travel around the country. The data on the businessman’s flights were disclosed by the Financial Times.
As the newspaper notes, Ma still has access to his Gulfstream business jet, which, if necessary, can fly to London or New York. This, in particular, is evidenced by the data of the tracking company Radarbox, which was studied by the Financial Times.
According to the information received by the publication, in January and February, the businessman used the plane on average once a week, mainly for flights to Beijing and Hainan Island. It is known that Ma played golf in Hainan, while in the capital of China, apparently, he went to negotiate the Ant Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba. In particular, according to newspaper sources, the entrepreneur took part in the discussion of the plan to restructure Ant Group and tried to contact directly with the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.
Thus, the Financial Times notes, it becomes obvious that the rumors that appeared earlier about Ma’s possible flight to Singapore or his house arrest are not true.
In October 2020, Ma criticized the Chinese government’s business policies, saying that “constant monitoring can stifle innovation” in the country. After that, the national regulator blocked the upcoming IPO (procedure for entering the stock exchange) of the Ant Group fintech corporation. Also, Beijing wanted to tighten control over the companies of the founder of Alibaba and big business in general. The official reason was the need to fight the monopolization of the economy.
At the same time, after the incident, Ma practically did not speak in public, which caused rumors in business circles that he was being influenced by the authorities. It was assumed that the billionaire became a defendant in a criminal case, as previously happened with some businessmen who decided to openly criticize the state system.
Jack Ma is ranked 4th among the richest people in China and 25th in the world ranking with a fortune of $ 52.9 billion.