Jack Ma (馬雲) was conspicuously absent from a list of China’s entrepreneurial greats published yesterday by state media, underscoring how the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) cofounder has run afoul of Beijing.
Ma, lionized at home for creating some of his country’s largest corporations, did not make the cut in a Shanghai Securities News front-page commentary lauding the leading lights of technology.
Instead, the official Chinese paper held up Pony Ma (馬化騰) as “rewriting the mobile age” with Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊).
Photo: EPA-EFE
Also on its list were BYD Co (比亞迪) chairman Wang Chuanfu (王傳福), Xiaomi Corp (小米) cofounder Lei Jun (雷軍) and Huawei Technologies Co (華為) founder Ren Zhengfei (任正非).
The brief editorial — which ran the same day as Alibaba was slated to unveil its earnings — might help assuage fears that Tencent might get caught up in a broader industry crackdown now focused on Ma’s Alibaba and Ant Group Co (螞蟻集團).
Beijing has launched a campaign to curtail the growing power of private technology corporations in almost every facet of Chinese life, as exemplified by the ubiquity of Tencent’s WeChat messaging service.
Shares in Tencent and Xiaomi rose more than 2 percent yesterday.
Jack Ma’s absence is telling, given that Shanghai Securities News is the most important business publication in Alibaba’s backyard.
The billionaire made his first public comments last month since disappearing from view late last year, after his now-infamous rebuke of Chinese regulators prompted a backlash that derailed Ant’s record US$35 billion initial public offering and spurred an investigation into his e-commerce giant.
Much about the future of China’s most recognizable and outspoken businessman remains unclear.
“A generation of Chinese entrepreneurs emerged from the rigid structures of our old economic system with the desire to escape poverty and passion to achieve business ambitions,” wrote the newspaper, which is backed by Xinhua news agency. “They have breathed new life into China’s economic reforms.”
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