Jack appeared in a video published on January 20 by Tianmu News, a subsidiary of the Zhejiang government’s official newspaper.
The Backfire
After troubles from the Chinese regulators, the 56-year-old was gone for months.
He was speaking to teachers in rural China as part of a philanthropic event in the video. The video was published online by Tianmu News, a subsidiary of the Zhejiang government’s official newspaper. Zhejiang province is home to Hangzhou, the city where Alibaba is based.
The Disappearance
Since late October, Jack Ma had not made a public appearance or social media post.
It happened just over a week before Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Group was scheduled to list on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The IPO was blocked at the last minute by Chinese regulators, and his companies have since been targeted as part of an escalating crackdown on tech by Beijing.
On Wednesday, Alibaba referred CNN Business to a statement released by the Jack Ma Foundation, his philanthropic organization. The foundation said that Ma participated in an online award ceremony Wednesday for teachers called the Rural Teacher Initiative, which is created.
In the video, which Tianmu News filmed Wednesday morning, Ma tells teachers that the traditional in-person celebration for the teaching initiative had been canceled because of Covid-19.
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