Jack Ma resurfaces – Alibaba founder makes his first public appearance after he was feared to be “missing” for nearly two months

• Jack Ma made a virtual appearance where he met 100 rural teachers in China through a video call.
• Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire was under scrutiny by the government of China, had not been seen in public for several weeks, this had led to speculations that Ma could be missing.
• In January, the Chinese state media reported that the global business icon, worth $60 billion, had “embraced supervision”.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has finally made an appearance in public after months of being missing in action. The billionaire made a virtual appearance where he met 100 rural teachers in China through a video call. The development was reported by Chinese news agency Tianmu News.

Jack Ma, whose net worth is $60.7 billion, according to Forbes, was under scrutiny by the government of China, had not been seen in public for several weeks, this had led to speculations that Ma could be missing.

Ma went missing after he publicly criticized the Chinese regulators and called the country’s banks “pawn shops”. “Mortgages and guarantees are for a pawnshop, but if we go to extremes in relying solely on collateral assets, certain enterprises will pledge all of their assets, and the pressure [for them] is enormous,” he had said in October, 2020.

Soon after, the regulators in Beijing cracked down Alibaba and Ant Group, and the companies Ma founded are currently facing an antitrust probe for alleged monopolistic practices.

Earlier in November 2020, Alibaba and Ant Group's $34 billion initial public offering (IPO) was suspended by the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Ant Group, touted to be the world’s biggest IPO, was scheduled for a dual listing on November 5 — on Shanghai and Hong Kong bourses and it was halted in China with less than 48 hours to go.