The Business School Founded by Ma Yun Suddenly Renamed as Startup Center

Alibaba founder Jack Ma [Photo by Reuters]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The name of the business school founded by Alibaba founder Ma Yun has suddenly changed. It seems that the Chinese authorities' 'Ma Yun crackdown' has extended even to the school.

According to Hong Kong media on the 18th, Hupan University, which Ma Yun co-founded in 2015 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, along with entrepreneurs such as Liu Chuanzhi, founder of Lenovo, and Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun Group, changed its name yesterday to Zhejiang Hupan Entrepreneurship Research Center.

There is much speculation about the school's sudden name change. Ming Pao cited a short video circulating on the Chinese internet the day before, reporting that the four characters 'Hupan University' engraved on a rock on the school campus were ground off by staff using machinery.

The official Weibo account name of Hupan University was subsequently changed to Hupan Innovation Research Center. The school explained the sudden renaming by saying, "Since we were originally registered as a non-profit social organization and not a school, we changed the name to avoid misunderstandings."

Hupan University had gained a reputation as an elite training ground. Since its establishment, 11,788 people applied, but only 255 were accepted. Hong Kong's Ming Pao said, "With an acceptance rate of only 2.16%, it was considered harder to get into than Harvard University," and added, "Netizens compared this school to Donglin Academy from the Ming Dynasty or criticized it as Ma Yun's interest group."

This is not the first time Chinese authorities have exerted influence over Hupan University. A foreign media outlet reported on the 9th of last month, citing sources, that "the Chinese government has suspended new student registrations at Hupan University." It added, "This shows that the Chinese government's crackdown on Ma Yun extends beyond his business to other areas where he exerts influence."

Ma Yun fell out of favor with Chinese authorities after openly criticizing them at the Shanghai Financial Forum in October last year. Since then, he has rarely appeared publicly, and Alibaba Group has been under various pressures, including a 3 trillion won antitrust fine.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.