Ma Yun builds big data for 900 million Chinese people… Communist Party felt threatened

Who is the most striking person in China for the New Year? I think it’s Ma Yun. He was called the’living wealth god’ in China, and is now treated as a’rat passing by the main street’. Here and there, there is a shout of “Batch me”.

There are also ugly rumors such as’the rumor of a ban on departure’ and’the rumor of disappearance’. Ma’s social media account has been “suspended” since October last year. How did Ma Yun, who represents China’s Gwigi, reach this point? The alarm bell rang on November 2nd last year.

Ma Yun and Jing Xian-dong, chairman of Ant Group, an Alibaba-affiliated fintech company, will talk with the four major financial supervisory departments in China. A promise is to have a conversation, but it is actually called and scolded.
The result of the promise was terrible. The listing of Ant Group, which was attracting attention as the world’s largest public offering (IPO), was stranded. Alibaba’s stock price plummeted, and Marwin’s wealth evaporated $12 billion (about 13 trillion won) over the next two months.

Why did this happen? At first, the reason was the Bund financial summit held in Shanghai on October 24 last year. Was it drunk with success so far? Ma Yun criticized China’s financial system, saying, “The state-owned bank of China has not escaped from the pawnshop business practices.”
It was a moment to hit the face of deputy head of state Wang Qishan, an aide to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who appeared before Ma Yun and made a remark emphasizing’financial stability’. This is the background of rumors that “Ma-win was guilty of wickedness” when the listing of Ant Group was suspended.

However, recent actions by the Chinese authorities show that the situation is not just at the level of criticism punishment. “Strengthening antitrust and preventing the disorderly expansion of capital” were emphasized at the Political Bureau’s meeting in the middle of last month and the Central Economic Cooperation Meeting in the latter part of the month.

Anyone can see that it was aimed at Ma Win’s Alibaba and Ant Group. At a leadership meeting presided over by President Xi, it shows that the crackdown on Alibaba was decided by the government.
On the 14th of last month, Alibaba was fined 500,000 yuan for violating antitrust regulations by making mergers and acquisitions without notifying the authorities. In addition, it is known that it is being investigated for antitrust in relation to the issue of coercion of an alternative, called’Lee Sun-il (二選一)’.
The alternative coercion means that Alibaba asks companies that have entered its platform, such as Taobao, to choose one of the two so that competitors such as Jingdong are not allowed to enter.

On the other hand, on the 28th of last month, Ant Group received a notification from the Chinese financial authorities to stick to the electronic payment business, which is its main business. It is accompanied by an instruction not to overlook the traditional financial industry sector, such as microloans, which have provided enormous profits to Ant Group.
It is said that Ma Yun’s Alibaba empire is collapsing with subsequent punishment. And it is analyzed that the most important reason for facing such a mischief is that Ma Yun’s Alibaba is threatening the Chinese Communist Party’s domination of China beyond the guilt.
First of all, financial risk is discussed. Antgroup makes microloans to people who need money, and the money comes from the bank. The bank takes the risk of lending and the Antgroup collects brokerage fees without risk. It is already lending to 500 million people.

In response, Sun Tian-chi, head of the Financial Stability Bureau of the People’s Bank of China, accused him of “it is like an unlicensed driving”. Ant Group’s problems are not just financial risks. The Alibaba Kingdom has vast customer data of 880 million.
Alibaba started with e-commerce, its main business, and has already penetrated all of the daily lives of Chinese people, including electronic payments, logistics, food service delivery, cloud, entertainment, media, artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, travel, and smart city management.
In particular, the enormous big data accumulated in Alibaba is a formidable power. It has built up a powerful power that can control the daily life of Chinese people, including what they eat, what clothes they buy, and where they live.

For the Communist Party, who wants control of the Chinese people step by step, there is no more rivalry. What’s even more surprising is that Alibaba has realized its power and has begun to wield it. A prime example is the scandal of Alibaba’s vice president Jang Pan in June of last year.
When Jangfan’s privacy scandal broke out, Sina.com, which Alibaba owns 30% of the time, intervened and immediately released all negative reports related to Zhangfan on Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter). He covered his scandal with the media power he had taken over.

Xu Lin, vice-president of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department and head of the Internet Office, recently emphasized, “We must firmly take the lead in the operation of public opinion and prevent the party’s leadership from weakening. It was a warning that Alibaba should dominate the media with the power of capital and prevent it from manipulating public opinion.
It is true that the distinction between socialism and capitalism has become ambiguous in China after China adopted the reform and openness policy. Ma Yun’s situation in Alibaba reminds us that China is a socialist country. It was reminded again that if the expansion of capital was considered to be a threat to the domination of the Communist Party, it was a system of relentlessly withdrawing swords.