Billionaire Jack Ma is hiding in Tokyo with his family, fearing reprisals from the Beijing regime against Chinese technology companies and the most powerful and wealthy Chinese businessmen, according to the Financial Times.

Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, who was China’s richest man before Xi Jinping’s crackdown on tech companies, has rarely appeared in public since criticizing the treatment of Chinese regulators two years ago. years, at an event in Shanghai, notes the Financial Times, cited by The Guardian and News.ro.

As well as a 48-second online appearance early last year described by one analyst as a “hostage video”, a short trip to the Netherlands and an appearance on his 88m superyacht Zen, filmed last summer while docked off the Spanish island of Mallorca, the 58-year-old the billionaire kept his personal life a secret, living outside of China.

On Tuesday, the Financial Times newspaper, which is owned by Japan’s Nikkei media company, reported that Ma had recently been living in Japan. Citing anonymous sources, the publication writes that the former English teacher has been living in Tokyo with his family for almost six months. He spent his time combining business and pleasure, visiting onsen (hot springs) and ski resorts in the Japanese countryside, as well as making regular trips to the US and Israel.

Ma, whose fortune has more than halved from nearly $50 billion to $21.7 billion, has kept his public activities to a minimum. He brought his personal security and chef to Japan, visiting several exclusive private clubs, one of which is popular with wealthy Chinese.

Alibaba has come under fire for the Chinese regime’s crackdown on tech giants after Ma, known for his outspoken and eccentric personality, accused regulators of “stifling innovation”. His remarks angered Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is now facing protests against Beijing’s zero-response policy against COVID-19, and Ma subsequently disappeared from public view for three months.

Chinese regulators have decided to block the initial public offering of Alibaba’s online payments subsidiary Ant Group in what would have been the largest IPO in history at a market capitalization of $34 billion.

Beijing has ordered Alibaba to sell some of its media assets, including Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

The government has clamped down on the growing public influence of the country’s sprawling tech conglomerates, such as Alibaba and Tencent.

A few months later, Alibaba was fined a record $2.8 billion for anti-competitive practices, marking the end of regulatory action against the company, although it was still forced to follow a comprehensive “remedial” program.

China’s central bank, which regulates the financial sector, was poised to fine Ant Group more than $1 billion last week. The People’s Bank of China has been conducting a regulatory review of the company since 2020. According to Reuters, the fine could be the first step in the process of Ant obtaining a license as a financial company and resuming plans for a stock exchange listing.

Day-to-day management of Ma’s technology interests in China is now largely delegated to a new generation of executives.

In August, Japan’s Softbank made a historic move by selling its 23.7% stake in Alibaba, bringing it to 14.6% for a profit of $34 billion. Its CEO, Masayoshi Son, who invested $20 million in Alibaba in 2000, helping to build the Japanese technology investment firm’s global reputation, made the decision after a global selloff in tech stocks led to record losses for his conglomerate.

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