Jack Ma might quietly sympathise with Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis star who disappeared after alleging that she was sexually assaulted by a former senior Communist Party official.
The billionaire behind Alibaba, China’s answer to Amazon, committed a cardinal sin when he criticised Beijing’s financial regulators colourfully and publicly in October last year. The planned stock market float of Alibaba’s payments business, Ant Group, was abruptly cancelled — and Ma went missing for three months. When he reappeared at a rural school in January, the previously outspoken tycoon declared: “My colleagues and I have been learning and thinking, and we have become more determined to devote ourselves to education and public welfare.”
