How Chinese billionaire flew close to the sun By Reuters

By Julie Zhu and Kane Wu

HONG KONG (Reuters) – This was supposed to be Jack Ma’s finest hour: a year ago to the day, his Ant Group was meant to go public in a $37 billion blaze of glory. Instead Beijing reined in his empire, abruptly clipping the wings of corporate China’s biggest star.

Now, to the cautious cheer of investors, the billionaire Alibaba (NYSE:) e-commerce tycoon is taking his first tentative steps back on to the global stage with a low-key trip to Europe where he’s cultivating like horticulture.

It’s a far cry from the height of Ma’s statesman-like powers in 2017 when he travelled to New York to meet President-elect Donald Trump for one-on-one talks in Trump Tower days before inauguration and promised to create a million American jobs.

That high-profile outing had roiled the Chinese government, which first learned of the meeting and jobs pledge along with the rest of the world when Ma held an informal televised Q&A session with reporters in the lobby of the skyscraper, according to four people close to Alibaba with knowledge of the matter and one Beijing government source.

Alibaba’s government relations team was subsequently told by Chinese officials that Beijing was unhappy about Ma meeting Trump without its prior approval, two of the people close to the company said.

Ma’s charitable foundation, which handles his media queries, did not respond to a request for comment.

The State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment. All the sources declined to be named due to sensitivity of the matter.

The meeting on Jan. 9 came at a time of taut tensions between the two countries after Trump was critical of China during his election campaign, blaming it for the loss of American jobs.

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

The four people close to Alibaba said they believed the meeting was a negative turning point in the relationship between Ma and Beijing. They did not elaborate on their thinking.

Investors are hungry for clues about Ma’s situation: the mere sighting of the businessman on the Spanish island of Mallorca last month, his first trip abroad in over a year, immediately saw Alibaba gain as much as $42 billion in value.

The story of his fall from official favour helps illustrate how rapidly China has transformed under Xi Jinping, as he nears what could be a precedent-breaking third term as leader of the economic powerhouse and exerts greater control over some of its most innovative companies. 

‘A NATURAL FIRST TARGET’

Authorities cracked down on Ma’s business empire after he gave a speech in Shanghai in October last year accusing financial watchdogs of stifling innovation. Regulators suspended the $37 billion listing of his fintech firm Ant Group two…