The previous CEO (and founder) Jack Ma of the company behind Qwen (Alibaba) was literally disappeared by the CCP.

I suspect the current CEO really, really wants to avoid that fate. Better safe than sorry.

Here's a piece about his sudden return after five years of reprogramming:

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/01/nx-s1-5308604/alibaba-founder...

NPR's Scott Simon talks to writer Duncan Clark about the return of Jack Ma, founder of online Chinese retailer Alibaba. The tech exec had gone quiet after comments critical of China in 2020.

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2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

[deleted]

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sillysaurusx 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What did he say to get himself disappeared by the CCP?

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michaelt an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Apparently, this: https://interconnected.blog/jack-ma-bund-finance-summit-spee...

To my western ears, the speech doesn't seem all that shocking. Over here it's normal for the CEOs of financial services companies to argue they should be subject to fewer regulations, for 'innovation' and 'growth' (but they still want the taxpayer to bail them out when they gamble and lose).

I don't know if that stuff is just not allowed in China, or if there was other stuff going on too.

	▲	lysace 33 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		He was also being widely ridiculed in the west over this interaction with Elon Musk in August 2019, back when Elon was still kinda widely popular. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3lUEnMaiAU "I call AI Alibaba Intelligence", etc. (Yeah, I know, Apple stole that one.) Reddit moment: "When Elon Musk realised China's richest man is an idiot ( Jack Ma )" https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/cy40bc/when_elon_mu... I can see the extended loss of face of China (real or perceived) at the time being a factor.

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anonzzzies an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

He critized the outdated financial regulatory system of the ccp publicly.

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kasey_junk 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Or undisappeared for that matter.