Where is Jack Ma? Chinese tycoon not seen since October

Speculation is mounting over the whereabouts of the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, who has not been seen or heard in public for more than two months. Ma, the co-founder and former chairman of the technology firm Ali baba, has fallen out of favour with China’s leadership. In late October, he stood alongside senior officials and delivered a blunt speech criticizing national regulators, reportedly infuriating China’s president, Xi Jinping.

In the following months, regulators summoned Ma and other executives in for questioning and halted what would have been the world’s biggest share offering of his company, Ant Group. They later launched anti-monopoly investigations into Alibaba and its key competitor Ten Cent, and called Ant Group in for questioning. In late December, regulators ordered Ma to pare down his empire.

Ma has not been heard from during the controversies. His last public appearance appears to have been at a live streamed event on 31 October, an opening ceremony of the annual Chinese shopping event Double 11. In November, he reportedly did not appear in his role as a judge for the final episode of entrepreneurial game show Africa’s Business Heroes, which Alibaba has since blamed on a scheduling conflict.

Ma was replaced with another Alibaba executive and his photo removed from the website. He also did not appear at this year’s Shanghai Zhejiang chamber of commerce meeting, where he has delivered a speech every year since 2016. Bloomberg reported Ma had been warned in early December not to leave the country. Observers are being cautious in drawing any conclusions, with so little confirmed information. 

Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/05/where-is-jack-ma-chinese-tycoon-not-seen-since-october-alibaba

In the title, the word tycoon refers to