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Well at least he still has billions. It's not like he'll be poor and homeless. If I were him I'd just by my own Island somewhere and retire.
You don't become a billionaire by being the kind of person who wants to chill on a private island.
True, but it's not a terrible fate :) and it doesn't have to be an island either. I'm sure he can get residency of any country he wants. Maybe even start up a new company.

It's not like his personal life is shattered or anything, that's all I mean.

Don't think he can leave China that easily. Still, I am sure he can live a very comfortable life.
I don't think that we know much about his current private life.

Some time ago he "disappeared" for a rather long time.

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I'm not sure that's true. I've heard a great deal about billionaires and the things they do on their private islands.
Yeah, I feel no sympathy for him, he was one of the 9-6-6 work hours system supporters, I'm not sorry he can't get away over there with things billionaires get away with , over here in the US. His end is not sad, nor fair. A fair end would be he loosing everything and the people that worked their ass off to make his wealth possible getting compensated.
Not to be a dick, but it's "losing", not "loosing". This is the most incorrectly spelt word on the Internet and it makes me irrationally irate. If English is not your native language then I apologise for my pedantic outburst.
Lol, is not , but thank you
Why do you say "the people that worked their ass off to make his wealth possible" haven't been compensated?
9-6-6 is a lot of work, but not too much for someone that loves it.

He advocates 9-9-6, which is just crazy.

So basically, Beijing is waiting for private groups to be very big/instrumental. Then extracts money to be put in the government under the form of taxes/fines. Then breaks up the monopoly in smaller units, some units being left alone, some other being management directly by the government.

That's...exactly what the left wing of the democrats wants to do.

The guy is a complete idiot, who cares? Why do people idolise him just because he is rich? China is going to be china.
> Why do people idolise him just because he is rich? China is going to be china.

Said someone on a website where billionaires are idolized... just because they're rich.

> Said someone on a website where billionaires are idolized... just because they're rich.

[citation needed]

What are you talking about? Serious question.
>> Why do people idolise him just because he is rich? China is going to be china.

>Said someone on a website where billionaires are idolized... just because they're rich.

Said someone on a website where people do the things which that person is criticizing.

Do you have to idolize him to be interested in what happened / is going on?
The "corrupt" banks are clearly an arm of the Chinese government. Keeping them weak and poorly regarded makes them easy to control. Capitalism creates a desire for equal access to information. It naturally promotes democracy of information, at first, and eventually, democracy itself. How can one be a "capitalist" and invest in companies when the government is not transparent and can do this type of thing at will? China is on a collision course with itself.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
How could anyone consider investing in China given stories like this?
This is the interesting take, while most of the other comments on this thread express schadenfreude because he’s a billionaire.

This is the CCP showing it’s true colours, usually hidden beneath an urbane capitalism-friendly facade.

It’s a risk to build into the financial model, just as folks might invest in volatile countries in South America and Africa (“emerging economies”).

If you offer me a chance to turn $1M into 10x or 100x, but on some occasions, it goes to zero (either because of business or government failure), that might be a level of risk I’m willing to take based on desired yield, asset class exposure requirements, and risk tolerance/management.

Naspers a dying newspaper and book publisher invested 32 million USD in Tencent - it is now worth over kabillions.
Because you hope that someone else is left holding the bag when this all comes crashing down.
The foreign sector does not invest in China. Chinese invest in China as they have no other place to invest. Now it should become clear why the whole world wants to park their money in the U.S. Things like rule of law and respect for property rights are more precious than gold, and just as rare.
A moment of silence for the loss of some of his billions. I sure hope he can get by on the few billions he still has.

Gosh, is there anything more tragic than the loss of wealth?

Reminds me of the tale of the frog and scorpion - trusting a one party govt to play by a rulebook not of it's own making.

The hubris of Jack Ma - good book or movie one day.

Let‘s be honest, this is exactly what should and probably will be happening to FAANG.
Isn't this just basic antitrust regulation? I don't like to use the word 'propaganda' unless it's tongue-in-cheek, but ... "Ma’s assets have been stripped, shorn, and degraded" ... come on, give me a break.
Quite frankly, Ma and his companies somewhat got what they had coming. It's a shame that many jobs were probably destroyed and that this only strengthens the power of the much larger evil that is the CCP, but this particular billionaire had gotten into bed with that particular dragon with enough experience of their dealings to know what they could do on a whim. In many ways he actively aided the Chinese state surveillance monster in its efforts at social control. Now he's seeing that when it comes to state power, anyone who isn't top dog is always subject to arbitrary punishment if the right sort of megalomaniac feels threatened in some way. Apparently, this didn't bother him when those being targeted were millions of smaller people (targeted at times with help from the very technologies his corporate empire helped develop). This whole fiasco speaks poorly of China's respect for rule of law and even its intelligence in how it proceeded, but as for Jack Ma himself, I hardly see how he deserves much sympathy finally being a target of his ruthless and control-hungry former friends.