Jakarta –
A person with the last name Ma was arrested by the Hangzhou Police, China, earlier this week. The person who was arrested was said to be Jack Mafounder of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.
Reported from Forbes, Wednesday (4/5/2022), local media CCTV reports, the person whose last name is Ma was arrested on charges of criminal activity. The man has been the target of the Hangzhou police since last week.
According to the report, the man named Ma was charged with inciting the subversion of state power through the internet and carrying out activities that endanger national security. A thorough investigation is still ongoing.
This news sparked speculation from local media outlets in China and Hong Kong. It is believed that the person named Ma who was arrested by the police is Jack Ma. Moreover, the arrests were made around the city of Hangzhou, which is Alibaba’s main headquarters.
In line with the news, Alibaba shares immediately plunged 9.4% in trading on Tuesday morning. Alibaba had to lose US$ 26 billion or around Rp. 374.4 trillion (in an exchange rate of Rp. 14,400) in its market capitalization.
Alibaba’s stock price rebounded after CCTV issued a correction that the person’s first name had two characters. Implies not necessarily Jack Ma being arrested.
Separately, the Global Times tabloid reported that the person named Ma who was arrested was actually not Jack Ma. That person is the director of the hardware research and development department of an IT company.
Jack Ma has long disappeared from the public eye, this was done after he had problems with Chinese regulators and led to the failure of the IPO of one of his business lines, a fintech company called Ant Group. Shortly after the IPO fiasco, Ma effectively disappeared from the public eye.
(hal/fdl)
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