The political message addressed by Beijing is strong. As the American tech, from Mark Zuckerberg to Elon Musk, ready allegiance to President Donald Trump, China also brings together its tech flagships. Chinese President Xi Jinping held a meeting on Monday, February 17, on Monday, February 17, with several private business leaders. The bosses of Byd, Tencent, Huawei, Xiaomi, Geely, Meituan and Deepseek participated in this meeting. According to CCTV public television, the meeting took place at the Palais du Peuple, a traditional place of major political and diplomatic meetings located in the heart of Beijing.
Among the participants in this meeting is Jack Ma, co-founder of the mastodon of e-commerce Alibaba. A video jack my standing, applauding with other participants when Xi Jinping enters a large room.
The invitation of the founder of Alibaba to this meeting seems to indicate that he now benefits from a rehabilitation after a long period during which he seemed to have been forced by the authorities to make a low profile. The 60 -year -old billionaire had made remarks on October 24, 2020 openly criticizing financial regulators. Jack Ma had questioned the health of the Chinese financial system, a system he considered obsolete. The manager had compared Chinese banks to “wages lenders” delivering credits to large companies, to the detriment of the smallest, recall Les Echos. Jack Ma had also grown regulators who “like to produce all kinds of public policy documents to prohibit this”. These shocking, unusual sentences from a Chinese boss, had immediately attracted the wrath of Beijing.
Rare public appearances
Ten days later, China had suspended the Record Entry of the Giant online Payment Ant Group, a company affiliated with Alibaba, which Jack Ma A founded in 1999. Ant Group aroused at the time the concern of the financial regulators By making foray into the personal and consumer loans sector, wealth management and insurance. In the process, Beijing had also launched an antitrust investigation against Alibaba. This ended, in April 2021, in a record fine of 2.33 billion euros for “abuse of dominant position”.
Following his criticisms, Jack Ma has only made rare public appearances, a sign of a more tense relationship with Chinese leaders. He led a discreet existence abroad, sharing his life between Japan, Australia, Spain, Thailand. After more than a year of absence, Jack Ma was reappeared for the first time publicly in China in March 2023, when he visited a school near Hangzhou, Alibaba’s seat.
This former English teacher made Alibaba one of the most famous and most important private companies in China. The group notably has the Taobao application, which captures a large part of the online trade in the country. Jack Ma is no longer the leader of Alibaba, but he would keep an important participation in society. My Yun, his name in Mandarin, has spent in recent years devoting himself to philanthropy and education in rural areas, his great passion. Jack Ma has kept an intact aura with the Chinese public, which has undoubtedly complicated the game of Chinese authorities.
Speeding saving
The reasons behind this rapprochement are opaque, as indicated Les Echos. But Beijing undoubtedly wants to rely on Alibaba to relaunch consumption in the country, the major project of 2025, while GDP growth has painfully reached 5 % last year, according to official figures. The meeting organized this Monday comes in fact in a particular context: China is faced with an economy in loss of speed, in the grip of a real estate crisis, a consumption of households always sluggish and a high unemployment rate among young people.
The economic daily recalls that other recent events accredit the thesis of a return to grace of Jack Ma in the eyes of the regime. In recent days, the 60 -year -old billionaire has been seen, all smiles, at Alibaba headquarters, triggering many comments on social networks. In December 2024, Alibaba also won a political contract: the exclusive sponsorship of the traditional Chinese New Year TV gala, one of the most watched shows in the world … and therefore a very powerful soft power tool for Beijing. Alibaba had not won this contract since 2018. In addition, in August 2024, the authorities formally closed the antitrust survey of which Alibaba was the subject.
Alibaba has seen its actions climb more than 40 % since the beginning of January 2025 and has to publish its quarterly results this week. Jack MA’s political comeback is auspicious for Alibaba. The company has indeed crossed a complicated reorganization and faces the competition of new platforms.