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Jack Ma Has Been Living in Tokyo for Six Months – FT

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has been living in Tokyo with his family, personal chef and security, avoiding China’s Covid restrictions and developing an interest in art and painting watercolours, a new report says


Chinese financial authorities are set to issue a fine of at least 8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) on Ant Group, sources have revealed.
Jack Ma has stayed out of the limelight since his infamous speech in late 2020 and the crackdown by regulators on his and many other tech companies in China. File photo from 2015 by Reuters.

 

Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who disappeared from public view two years ago after upsetting Chinese authorities with a speech he gave, has been living in central Tokyo with his family, personal chef and security for about six months, according to a report by the Financial Times, which quoted sources as saying the billionaire had visited hot springs and ski resorts outside the capital and made regular trips to the US and Israel.

Ma’s speech spurred a dramatic tech crackdown, including a state-enforced rejig of Ant Group, which he founded, and a $2.8 billion fine imposed on Alibaba for anti-monopoly abuses, the report said, adding that “his social activities centre around a small handful of private members’ clubs” in the swish Ginza district and people in the local modern-art scene said Ma had become an enthusiastic collector and had even turned to painting watercolours.

Read the full report: The FT.

 

 

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China’s Alibaba Unwinds Corporate Links With Ant Group

 

Campaign Against Jack Ma Intensifies

 

Alibaba value plunges over $100bn over PBOC shakeup, anti-trust probe

 

Ant Group IPO swept off the table

 

Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd papers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling through SE Asia in the late 90s. He was a senior editor at The Nation for 17+ years.