Beijing takes care of the market. But awkward entrepreneurs keep disappearing

The last case is that of the investor Bao Fan. In the spotlight is above all the high-tech sector. Xi Jinping does not want excessively wealthy tycoons who can challenge his power. The best known, Jack Ma, has been missing for more than two years. The Supreme Leader launched a campaign of “polls” with a Maoist flavor.

Beijing () – During a visit to the southern province of Hunan, the newly appointed Premier Li Qiang declared yesterday that China will create a market-oriented economic ecosystem. The continued “disappearance” of Chinese entrepreneurs, especially in the high-tech field, sends the opposite message to foreign investors concerned about Xi Jinping’s new “centrist” course.

The latest case is that of investor Bao Fan, active in the technology sector. The founder of China Renaissance Holdings, whose clients include companies including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, disappeared on February 16. After 10 days, his company issued a statement saying Bao was cooperating in an investigation with “some” national authorities.

The tycoon’s disappearance came shortly before the annual session of the National People’s Congress, which ratified Xi’s decision to centralize control of financial activities and the development of the technology sector in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (and, therefore, in theirs).

Since 2015 there has been a succession of disappearances and arrests of prominent businessmen. It is worth noting the case of dissident billionaire Ren Zhiqiang, sentenced in September 2020 to 18 years in prison for corruption crimes: before his disappearance, six months earlier, he had made headlines for publishing an article on the web in which he called Xi “power-hungry clown”.

The most striking disappearance, however, is that of Jack Ma. The Alibaba founder disappeared in late 2020 after criticizing the country’s financial regulators, which was followed by a downsizing of his company. Ma has not been seen in China since then: he could be in Thailand, Japan or Australia.

Analysts say Xi is most likely worried about losing political control to wealthy businessmen. The measure affects the technology sector first because it is the one that flourished during the years of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, his predecessors. Apart from Alibaba, the authorities did not spare even Didi and Tencent, which like Ma’s business empire were investigated for alleged regulatory violations.

More generally, with the recognition of a third term for Xi in power, the Party is even more intent on limiting dissent and disempowering oligarchs whose economic power could threaten the pre-eminent role of the secretary-general.

In addition to the redistributive campaign for “common prosperity”, Xi launched the “poll” campaign to listen to the voice of the “masses”. as he pointed out Radio Free Asiathe regime’s will to seek the opinion of the population is reminiscent of an initiative by Mao Zedong in the 1950s, which later turned out to be a maneuver to identify people who did not conform to the Party’s dictates, in order to later purge them in the “fighting spirit”.

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