The founding multimillionaire of Alibaba, Jack Ma, who disappeared from Chinese public life last year after criticizing the country’s financial control system, is on vacation on the island of Ibiza, has revealed the Hongkonian newspaper The Standard.
Ma flew to Spain on a private aircraft at dawn on Saturday accompanied by other “billionaires and business partners”, after which he embarked on Ibiza at his Zen yacht, valued at 1.6 billion hongkonese dollars (205.69 million dollars),
according to the information.
Before flying Ibiza, the magnate spent several days in Hong Kong in a pleasure and business visit, the source added.
Ma, who managed to become China’s richest man after raising his conglomerate to the category of giant, has been “disappeared” after in October last year pronounced a controversial speech in which he was critical with Beijing’s strategy
to minimize the risks in the financial system.
Soon after, Chinese regulators suspended Anti Group’s stock exchange, the Technophinanciera (‘FINTECH’) of Alibaba, under a more restrictive regulation for the sector.
After this episode, Ma ceased to appear in public until, at the end of January 2021, he recorded a speech to greet the winners of a prize that grants his foundation.
This “reappearance” slowed speculation over his whereabouts behind the friction with Beijing, but since then the magnate has opted for a low profile with counted public appearances.
Beijing allowed for years that the technological sector would grow without too many regulations, but in 2020 an scrutiny campaign began that has been settled with sanctions for several companies in the branch.
Between it, Alibaba was, which took a large antitrust fine amount of 18,200 million yuan (2,818 million dollars), the greatest of this type in the history of the country.
