Jack Ma, the co-founder of Chinese e-commerce Alibaba Group, has taken up a visiting professor position at a research institute affiliated with the University of Tokyo, the university said Monday. Ma, 58, began his tenure at Tokyo College on that same day, and he will carry out joint research and projects related to sustainable agriculture…

The School of Economics and Management of the University of Hong Kong website shows that Jack Ma is an “honorary professor” of the college. The introduction mentions that Jack Ma graduated from Hangzhou Normal University and obtained a bachelor’s degree in English literature. Ma has been awarded honorary doctorates by many universities around the world,…

Several large Chinese companies have recently been restructured for listing on the stock exchange, with most of them privately owned. Days after Alibaba’s restructuring was announced, Jingdong (JD.com), another Chinese e-commerce platform, announced on March 30 that its sub-companies JD Industrial and JD Production and Development will be spun off and listed on the Hong…

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced on March 28 that it will split into six units, as news emerged that its co-founder Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has returned to China per the communist party’s request, after spending more than a year overseas. China observers believe this shows that Beijing’s policy toward privately-owned large Chinese tech companies…

WASHINGTON—E-commerce billionaire Jack Ma will give up control of Ant Group, the leading Chinese financial technology provider he founded. In a statement posted Friday, Ant Group said that after an ownership restructuring, “no shareholder, alone, or with other parties” will have “control over Ant Group.” The company is an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, which…

A reported comeback of Beijing-led regulatory crackdowns on Jack Ma’s Ant Group has sounded alarm bells for China’s fintech sector. Ant, the payment affiliate of Alibaba Group, is facing more state intrusion with Beijing asking banks and state-owned enterprises to conduct a fresh round of checks of their financial exposure and other links with the…

Commentary China’s state broadcaster CCTV aired a five-day miniseries on corrupt officials. The trailer featured Zhou Jiangyong, a former top official of Hangzhou city, an e-commerce hub. Details of Zhou’s corruption case reveal that Jack Ma was indirectly involved, which brings him back under the spotlight of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. “Zero Tolerance” was aired from…

Commentary When you read the word technology, what images spring to mind? Smartphones, supercomputers, superfast search engines, self-driving cars, and so on. It’s important to remember that technology is simply the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. It’s a broad definition, meaning technology comes in many forms. Take seed technology, as in all the…

Xi Jinping’s crackdown on business has transformed the ranking of China’s wealthiest people. As indicated by the Hurun China Rich List 2021, many familiar names dropped several places, while at least nine tycoons have had their properties auctioned by the courts. New names were seen in the top three of this year’s rich list, with…

News Analysis Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, recently made public appearances in Hong Kong, Spain, and the Netherlands. Media reports of his tour in Europe seem to debunk rumors of the Chinese billionaire being involved in graft investigations. Ma’s recent tour of agricultural research institutions in the Netherlands, as reported by his subsidiary media, was interpreted…