The Chinese regime enlisted Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Alibaba, in an intimidation campaign to press a businessman to help in the purge of a top official, documents seen by the Guardian suggest. The businessman, who can be named only as “H” for fear of reprisals against his family still in China, faced a series of threats from the Chinese state, in an attempt to get him to return home from France, where he was living. They included a barrage of phone calls, the arrest of his sister, and…
Tag: Alibaba
Belgian intelligence investigating logistics hub of China’s Alibaba at local airport
Belgian officials are looking into risks around the presence of China’s Alibaba Group Holding at a cargo airport in the city of Liège, the country’s state security service (VSSE) said in a statement on Thursday. Referring to the company’s main European logistics centre at Liège Airport, the security service said it was working to “detect and fight against possible spying and/or interference activities carried out by Chinese entities including Alibaba”. Belgian authorities are looking into Alibaba’s operations at the airport based on an analysis of China’s legal framework, the statement…
China to take ‘golden shares’ in tech firms Alibaba and Tencent
China is to take “golden shares” in two of its biggest tech companies, Alibaba and Tencent, as Beijing extends its influence on the country’s star tech firms and its most powerful and wealthy business people. Beijing’s move marks a shift away from imposing hefty fines and sanctions in its two-year tech crackdown, which was launched after Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, criticised regulators, The crackdown has proved tumultuous for Chinese tech firms, with billions wiped off their value, and moves including blocking the flotation of Ma’s financial services firm, Ant Group,…
Jack Ma to give up control of China’s Ant Group, firm says
China’s Ant Group says it will adjust its shareholding structure so that its billionaire founder, Jack Ma, will no longer hold control over the fintech giant. “No shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group” after the completion of the adjustment, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The move marks another big development after a regulatory crackdown that scuppered Ant’s $37bn initial public offering (IPO) in late 2020 and led to a forced restructuring of the financial technology company. While Ma owns only…
China’s indebted property sector highlights a fading economic revival
China’s economy has become heavily dependent on property development over the last decade. High-rise apartments have mushroomed across hundreds of cities to house a growing white-collar workforce, while glass and steel office blocks are dominating city centres, mimicking Shanghai’s glittering skyline. Valued at more than $50tn after 20 years of rapid growth, Chinese real estate is worth twice as much as the US property market and four times China’s annual income. George Magnus, an associate at Oxford University’s China Centre, says this real estate market ranks as the most important…