Jack Ma’s back: Chinese e-tycoon ends silence but says little

China's highest-profile entrepreneur, Jack Ma, appeared Wednesday in an online video, ending a 2 1/2month absence from public view that prompted speculation about the future of the e-commerce billionaire and his Alibaba Group.

In the 50-second video, Ma congratulated teachers supported by his foundation and made no mention of his disappearance or official efforts to tighten control over Alibaba and other internet companies over the past six months. The video appeared on Chinese business news and other websites.

The normally voluble Ma disappeared from public view after he irked regulators by criticising them in an October 24 speech at a Shanghai conference. Days later, regulators suspended the planned multibillion-dollar stock market debut of Ant Group, a financial platform that grew out of Alibaba's payments service, Alipay.

That prompted speculation online about whether the 56year-old Ma, China's biggest global business celebrity and a symbol of its tech boom, had been detained or might be facing legal trouble. Alibaba and the government haven't responded to questions about him and when his next public event might be.

President Xi Jinping's government says anti-monopoly enforcement against internet companies will be a priority this year. Alibaba and other companies have been fined for violating anti-monopoly rules. Some social media services have been reprimanded for lapses in enforcing censorship.

In his October speech, Ma complained regulators had an antique “pawnshop mentality” and were hampering innovation, according to Chinese media. He appealed to them to make it easier for entrepreneurs and young people to borrow.