It is a heavy summit of symbols held in February in China. Chaired by Xi Jinping, a symposium with a well -oiled choreography has honored 12 Chinese business leaders. Some had already been invited during the previous edition organized in 2018, under the first term of Donald Trump, when the United States launched customs and sanctions against China. At the time, we already found Tencent’s patterns (super WeChat application), Amperex (battery manufacturer), byd (electric vehicles), Xiaomi (electronic devices) and Chint (solar energy).
New heads have appeared, such as the leaders of New Hope Group (agrifood), Huawei (electronic devices), Will Semiconductor (semiconductors), Unitre Robotics (developer of humanoid robots and quadripeds), Meituan (food delivery) and Deepseek, the star of the IA. The most emblematic guest of this summit was, however, without question, Jack Ma, the founder of the giant Alibaba (electronic commerce), who was entitled to a handshake from the Chinese president.
As in the United States, the emergence of tech billionaires in the political field is palpable in China. Jack Ma invitation to the symposium is a strong sign. In October 2020, the emblematic entrepreneur had been dismissed unremated by the public scene by Beijing, after criticizing the Chinese banking sector. His remarks had displeased so much that the long -awaited IPO of the Alibaba subsidiary, Ant Group, however concluded from a technical point of view, the titles having been paid, had been brutally canceled.
Jack’s disgrace my
Subsequently, Jack Ma did not almost appear in public. It was not imprisoned, did not receive heavy fines and its billions were not confiscated. He was simply ousted and settled in Japan. The Chinese scholarship was not excessively shaken at the time. After the initial shock, the market recovered and reached a peak a few months later, at the beginning of 2021. It, however, plunged for more than four years afterwards. In parallel, the account of the repression of the private sector in China has established itself, especially in the sphere of video games and education. Jack Ma was at the center of this story, many rumors running on his arrest.
The man has always displayed important political ambitions, being even nicknamed, at his peak, “Governor MA” because Alibaba’s income exceeded that of almost every province of China. In 1995, at the head of his first translation company, founded a year earlier, he accompanied officials from the municipality of Hangzhou in the United States, traveling during which he discovered the Internet. Its influence, supported on the Zhejiang network, allows it to win many conflicts against certain senior officials. In 2015, the State Administration for Industry and Trade (SAIC) accused Alibaba leaders not to take enough measures to combat the sale of counterfeit products. Alibaba publishes an answer on the Microblogging Weibo site, directly attacking the SAIC director. The case ended in a simple visit to the Minister of Tuture of the Administration, Zhang Mao, in Alibaba.
Visit to Donald Trump
With Alipay, Jack Ma then takes the risk of embarking on the non -regulated payments sector and ends up tipping legislation in its favor. He skillfully used the Banque Populaire de China as a screen for his decision to release Alipay from Alibaba, to the detriment of the majority shareholders Yahoo and SoftBank.
Like many American entrepreneurs, this daring boss successfully applied the mantra “Do it first, fix it later” which consists in playing with the rules, sometimes in breaking them openly, before using its commercial success to fold them to their interests. Sure of his strength, Jack my meeting Donald Trump in 2017 after his victory and promises to create 1 million jobs in the United States.
After the release of the Chinese entrepreneur, Elon Musk asked the question: “Where’s Jack Ma?”. He did not have the answer until three and a half years later. The formidable influence of Tesla’s leader at the heart of the American political system, establishing himself as one of Donald Trump’s closest collaborators, can only contrast with the signal sent by this symposium bringing together 12 entrepreneurs. China counts on its talents to delight technological leadership in the United States. But no one is essential.
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