Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Reveals Himself After Two Months

Alibaba founder Jack Ma [Photo by Reuters]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Alibaba founder Ma Yun appeared in public for the first time in two months.

On the 11th, the Ma Yun Foundation released a video on Weibo showing Ma Yun participating via video call in the foundation's annual event, the "Rural Teacher Initiative," held the previous day at Changhao Central School in Hainan, China. Ma Yun sat in a classroom in front of a blackboard with the date and school name written on it and said, "I have not done enough yet, and my capabilities are limited," expressing his desire to continue supporting rural teachers through the campaign.

Before founding Alibaba, Ma Yun was an English teacher. In 2014, he established the Ma Yun Foundation and has been working to improve education in rural China through the "Rural Teacher Initiative" since the following year. The foundation also established the "Ma Yun Rural Teacher Award," selecting 100 outstanding rural teachers annually and awarding each 100,000 yuan (approximately 18.7 million KRW) to be used for student education. Before COVID-19, the event was held in Hainan, but for the past two years, it has been conducted online.

This is Ma Yun's first public appearance since returning from Europe in November last year. In October 2020, Ma Yun publicly criticized China's economic authorities. Since then, the Chinese Communist Party and government have continuously pressured Alibaba, including abruptly halting the IPO of Ant Group, Alibaba's fintech affiliate, and imposing an antitrust fine of 3.3 trillion KRW on Alibaba.

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