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Xi’s rehabilitation of Jack Ma may be the most lucrative ever
Why China’s leader is making nice with the country’s tech billionaires.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s reign has been an experiment in how best to guide entrepreneurs while limiting their influence over policy and society.
PHOTO: AFP
The Economist
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China’s Communist Party has a history of purging and then welcoming back senior officials. Deng Xiaoping was purged three times before leading the country out of Maoism in the late 1970s. Some cadres are welcomed back years after their death. Mr Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, received the modern version of a purge in 2020. The initial public offering (IPO) of his fintech company, Ant Group, was cancelled. Alibaba was probed and handed a record fine. Mr Ma withdrew from public life.
Now, however, he seems welcome once again. On Feb 17, Mr Ma and a handful of other entrepreneurs met at a symposium in Beijing with Mr Xi Jinping, China’s supreme leader
