It wasn’t the most verbally dextrous 60 seconds of Jack Ma’s life, but then it didn’t need to be.
This wasn’t Jack the mogul explaining to investors the inner workings of Alibaba or Ant Financial, the firms he founded, or Jack the globalist, hobnobbing with politicians and rockstars.
It wasn’t even Jack the balladeer, serenading an audience at the 2017 Computing Conference in Hangzhou with a lilting rendition of Unchained Melody.
No, this was a new version of the man with the most recognizable face in China after president Xi Jinping and the country’s deepest pockets – Forbes puts his fortune at $65.6 billion.
In a minute-long video published on Wednesday by Chinese state media, Ma sits on a simple settee wearing a white T-shirt under a blue sweater. His eyes look healthy, his body language unguarded, his demeanour chirpy.
In it, Ma praises the 100 teachers he just handed awards to via Zoom, as part of an annual prize-giving ceremony organized by the Jack Ma Foundation.
For the past three months, Ma has been the world’s most famous fugitive
The event usually takes place in the city of Sanya, but Covid again put the kibosh on it. Ma promises to meet up with everyone “when the epidemic is over”.
There’s a short clip of him in a baseball cap and winter coat, wandering down a narrow school corridor, stopping to peer at photos of students. Ma was a teacher in his hometown of Hangzhou before he founded Alibaba.
Absent any context, it would be one of the most boring YouTube videos in history. Number of accidental likes: three.
But, of course, there is context, and plenty of it. For the past three months, Ma has been the world’s most famous fugitive.
He was last seen in public on October 24, just before regulators in Shanghai nixed the planned $34.4 billion IPO of Ant Financial in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Ma had raised the ire of politicians by accusing China’s state banks of suppressing innovation and having a “pawnshop” mentality.
Gossip
When he disappeared, gossip filled the news vacuum. Some said he was under arrest. A few tipped him to show up in court flanked by oversized policemen.
Not a bit of it. In the video, Ma looks fine.
“He was likely staying with friends in Hangzhou, laying low,” said a Shanghai-based banker. “The last thing he wanted was to be spotted in public.”
Ma, who is a longtime member of the Communist Party, surely has a future and a role to play in China.
“He annoyed regulators with his comments, but he’s not accused of financial fraud,” said a banker. “He has a future in the party.”
Why? Because Beijing needs his skills. China has little experience in taking small ideas and magnifying them into something great.
Ma has pulled off that trick twice with separate companies. He’s a rare and precious commodity.
For its part, Ant Financial faces an uncertain future. The fintech firm will have its wings clipped. It may well be broken up. Even if it manages to complete its IPO, it will be a much-diminished event.
But at least Jack’s back, if he ever went away, offering us yet another version of the puckish corporate chameleon: Jack the survivor.
