Jack Ma implicated in removal of top official case: Was he forced by the Chinese regime?

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's co-founder, Jack Ma, was implicated in a scheme to help remove a top Chinese regime official, reported the news portal The Guardian, citing documents on Tuesday, April 29.

The news portal report also highlighted how Jack Ma was tasked to turn a Chinese businessman in France after promising him his problems would go away.

The businessman cited with the letter “H” was kept undisclosed due to the danger of the repercussions from the regime, as his family is still in China. The businessman reportedly faced a series of threats from China in an attempt to return home from France. 

The threats included phone calls, the arrest of his sister, and issuing a red notice, i.e., an international alert through Interpol.

“They said I’m the only one who can persuade you to return,” said Jack Ma in April 2021, according to the report.

According to the news portal's report, H had known Jack Ma for many years, and he recorded his call. He also recorded other calls that he received from his friends as well as Chinese security officials, all with the same message.

The transcripts and documents lay out in detail the combination of threats, co-opted legal mechanisms and extrajudicial pressures that are used to control even beyond China's borders, according to the report. 

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) findings show that the China Targets project, in which the journalists documented the methods the Chinese regime uses to track and crush its citizens abroad, according to the report.

China denied the so-called transnational repression, calling it a pure fabrication of facts.

“The so-called ‘transnational repression’ by China is pure fabrication,” said the Chinese embassy spokesperson in the UK. 

Threat of Extradition

The 48-year-old Chinese-origin citizen of Singapore was in France when he received the call from Jack Ma. China had a notice out for H through Interpol on charges over financial crime.

In the call with H, Jack ma suggested that all of H's problems will go away if he would assist in the prosecution of Sun Lijun, a Chinese politician who fell out of favour with the ruling China regime.

“They are doing this all for Sun, not for you,” he said, as per the news report.

Sun was a former deputy security minister who was arrested the year before H started receiving the phone calls. Later Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) denounced Sun for “harbouring hugely inflated political ambitions” and “arbitrarily disagreeing with central policy guidelines” as per the report. 

‘No other solution’

The transcript cited by the news portal showed that Jack Ma was not happy to have been drawn into the affair.

“Why did you involve me in this?” Ma asked H as per the report.

According to the report, like Sun, Ma fell out of favour with the Chinese regime. He was hit with repeated sanctions, including a $2.8 billion fine.

“They say they guarantee that if you come back now, they will give you a chance to be exempted … You have no other solution … the noose will tighten more and more,” Jack Ma told H, cited in the report.

H did not return to China, and his lawyers fought his extradition in the French court. His lawyers said that if he returned to China, it would result in his being arrested, detained, and most likely tortured till he agreed to testify. 

While H waited in France, trapped under the legal process, he received calls from friends and security officials. His lawyers called it “all-out psychological warfare”, which was sometimes with friendly promises and otherwise threatening elements.

In July 2021, H appeared before a French court, which denied the extradition request. Much later, the red notice was removed from Interpol's systems.

Sun was convicted of manipulating the stock market. He was reportedly taking bribes and committing other offences, without H’s intervention in the prosecution. Sun was given a suspended death sentence.

Jack Ma did not respond to further questions from the Guardian.

“China always respects the sovereignty of other countries and conducts law enforcement and judicial cooperation with other countries in accordance with the law,” said the Chinese embassy spokesperson in UK, reported the news portal.

(LiveMint couldn't independently verify the report.)