China’s Communist Party has a history of purging and then welcoming back senior officials. Deng Xiaoping was purged three times before leading the country out of Maoism in the late 1970s. Some cadres are welcomed back years after their death. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, endured the modern version of a purge in 2020. The initial public offering (ipo) of his fintech company, Ant Group, was cancelled. Alibaba was probed shortly thereafter and handed a record fine. Mr Ma withdrew from public life.
Now, however, he seems to be welcome once again. On February 17th Mr Ma along with a handful of other entrepreneurs met at a symposium in Beijing with Xi Jinping, China’s supreme leader. Many see this as Mr Ma’s rescue from the wilderness—and a sign that, after a prolonged crackdown, private-sector tech is back in favour.
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