Jack Ma makes 1st public appearance after 2 months

Jack Ma Yun, the English teacher turned business magnate behind Chinese e- commerce behemoth Alibaba, appeared during a rural teacher- themed social welfare event via video link on Wednesday, according to media reports.

It was his first public appearance since Alibaba came under tougher regulatory scrutiny amid the nation’s efforts to rein in internet- based monopolies.

The Alibaba founder attended the Jack Ma Rural Teachers Award ceremony via video, in which he addressed 100 rural teachers from across the country and said “We’ll meet again when the [ COVID- 19] epidemic is over!” according to Tianmu News, a website in East China’s Zhejiang Province where Alibaba is based.

The ceremony is an annual event launched by the Jack Ma Foundation in 2015. It was previously held in Sanya, South China’s Hainan Province each year, on the date of the traditional Chinese Laba Festival, and due to the COVID- 19 pandemic it was reorganized as an online event for the first time. The Laba Festival fell on Wednesday this year.

Alibaba’s shares in the Hong Kong market swiftly extended gains on the news, which emerged shortly before noon, and ended 8.52 percent higher on Wednesday, outperforming a 1.08- percent gain in the Hang Seng Index.

Ma’s disappearance from public view over the past two months sparked speculation over his whereabouts among many Western media outlets.

Ma, the actual controller of Alibaba fintech offshoot Ant Group, and Ant management were summoned for talks by the country’s top financial regulatory authorities on November 2, just before Ant’s planned dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The regulatory interview was the prelude to a series of toughening moves that have seen the regulators call a halt to what was expected to be a record- smashing IPO, launch an antitrust probe into Alibaba, and summon Ant Group managers to a second regulatory talk that ordered the fintech giant to rectify its key businesses.

Ant Group has established a rectification working team and is formulating a timeframe for overhauling its services, Chen Yulu, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China ( PBC), the country’s central bank, revealed recently.

A few hours after a PBC statement that briefed reporters on the second interview on December 26, Ant said that it would set up a rectification work team to implement the interview’s requirements and regulate the operation and development of its financial businesses.