Alibaba founder Jack Ma has returned to mainland China for a rare public visit as Beijing tries to restore confidence in the business class after years of crackdown on the tech sector.

Ma traveled to his hometown of Hangzhou, where Alibaba is headquartered, to visit the Yungu school sponsored by his company.

In an article posted Monday on its WeChat account, the school said Ma spoke about the challenges posed by artificial intelligence in education. The former English teacher lectured on the need for educational reform if children were to compete with artificial intelligence in the future.

Beijing hopes that the hype surrounding Ma’s rare trip to mainland China can revive business confidence after the end of the harsh regulatory crackdown and traffic ban.

Jack Ma, when this Beijing campaign was in full swing, disappeared from the face of the earth for three months and then returned.

“Exiled” due to criticism in Beijing

Once the richest and most prominent high-tech entrepreneur in China, Jack Ma has fallen out of the limelight in recent years. Ma drew the ire of Communist Party officials at a conference in 2020 by comparing the country’s state-owned banks to pawnshops and criticizing the lack of innovation.

His criticism of government policies has caused many problems with Beijing, derailing the giant Ant Group’s initial public offering at the end of October 2020 on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Chinese regulators canceled five of his plans, in what analysts saw as an attempt by Beijing to slow down the ambitions of a business that had become too powerful and a businessman too outspoken.

His wealth has reportedly halved, from about $50 billion to $21.7 billion, as a result of the Chinese government’s crackdown on his tech business. In addition, Beijing has ordered Jack Mack and Alibaba to put up for sale some of its media outlets, including the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.