[NTD Beijing, January 27, 2022]After Zhou Jiangyong, the former secretary of the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee, was “double-opened”, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection recently mentioned a new crime against him for the first time, alluding to Zhou’s involvement in the Jack Ma Capital case. The US media said that Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption account is old, and it seems that Jack Ma is in trouble.
Zhou Jiangyong and capital colluded with Jack Ma
Zhou Jiangyong was double-opened (expelled from the party and public office) on January 26. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported that Zhou Jiangyong was obsessed with the central decision-making and deployment, linked with capital, and supported the disorderly expansion of capital. The rare new charge this week sparked heated debate.
On the same day, the “China Economic Weekly” under the party media “People’s Daily” issued an article saying that “connecting with capital and supporting the disorderly expansion of capital” appeared for the first time in the notification of the dismissal of senior officials.
Earlier, the anti-corruption feature film “Zero Tolerance” released by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection disclosed in detail Zhou Jiangyong’s family-style corruption and power and money transactions, from which we can see his connection with capital.
Zhou Jiangyong admitted in the film that he used his power to seek commercial projects for his brother Zhou Jianyong’s company. According to the “Tianyancha” APP, Zhou Jianyong co-founded Youcheng United Information Technology Development Co., Ltd., of which Shanghai Yunxin, which is wholly-owned by Ant Technology Group, is one of the shareholders, contributing 1.6667 million yuan, accounting for 14.28% of the shares.
Zhou Jianyong once told the media that Youcheng United and the investor Alibaba (Ant Financial) have joined hands to cultivate Ningbo, export Zhejiang, and face the whole country.
On the surface, Youcheng United is a high-tech company focusing on “Metro Internet +”, but its core resource is Zhou Jiangyong’s power. Through Zhou Jiangyong’s greetings, U-City United has successively obtained the planning rights of Ningbo Metro Mobile Payment System and some projects of Wenzhou Metro Mobile Payment System, and invested and established Hangtie U-City Technology Co., Ltd. as a major shareholder, intending to further expand its business in Hangzhou.
According to the Tianyancha APP, in the equity structure of Hangzhou Railway Youcheng Technology Co., Ltd., Youcheng United holds 55% of the shares, Hangzhou Metro Group holds 31.5% of the shares, and Shanghai Yunxin, a subsidiary of Ant, invested another 1.35 million yuan, accounting for 13.5% of the shares.
At the beginning of the new year, Zhou Jiangyong pleaded guilty on TV as a typical example of political and business collusion and corruption, and drew out Jack Ma, who has a deep relationship with the Jiang faction, hinting at the new trend of the authorities’ anti-corruption campaign in 2022.
On January 20, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued a communiqué of the plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in 2022, stating that in 2022, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection will “focus on investigating and punishing the corrupt practices behind the disorderly expansion of capital and platform monopoly, and sever the link between power and capital.”
The Voice of America reported on the 22nd that this is obviously not good for Ma Yun, and Xi Jinping may use Ma Yun’s relationship with the officialdom to repair him again.
Jack Ma is a cash cow of the Jiang faction, making Xi Jinping annoyed
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has almost completely disappeared from public view since October 2020 after he publicly criticized the Chinese Communist Party’s financial regulator for being interviewed. The Wall Street Journal once disclosed that the reason why Jack Ma “stumbled” was because he continued to challenge the CCP authorities and even made Xi Jinping unhappy in person.
For example, Jack Ma has criticized Chinese banks for focusing too much on state-owned enterprises and not doing enough to support small and micro businesses. “If the bank doesn’t change, we’ll change the bank,” Jack Ma said at a 2008 conference.
In early 2020, the CCP virus outbreak broke out in Wuhan, and Xi Jinping personally deployed epidemic prevention and control. In the summer of the same year, Jack Ma invited the medical team members of Anhui Province to eat hot pot in Hefei to express his gratitude to them for fighting the epidemic. Local media called him “Teacher Ma” in a report.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter, said top Chinese leaders were annoyed. Some officials believe that in his capacity, Jack Ma should not be the one to thank front-line workers in the fight against the epidemic.
What directly caused Jack Ma to be purged was the listing of Ant. The report quoted sources as saying that Jack Ma and Alibaba are inextricably linked to Jiang Zemin’s faction, and the authorities’ investigation found that behind the Ant Group, powerful capital such as Jiang Zemin’s grandson and Jia Qinglin’s son-in-law were involved, making Xi Jinping uneasy.
Mr. Xi doesn’t want Ant’s listing to bring huge benefits to “princeling” investors in the Communist Party, which he believes will widen income gaps and hurt his efforts to eradicate poverty, people familiar with the matter said. As a result, Xi Jinping stopped Ant’s listing, and Jack Ma also fell into the cloud and was repeatedly beaten by the authorities.
The rectification made Jack Ma, who has always acted a high profile, suddenly disappeared from public view. It wasn’t until a year later, in October last year, that Jack Ma made appearances in Hong Kong and Spain. The interpretation of this is that the authorities allowed Ma Yun to leave the country, indicating that his troubles may be over.
Now, Jack Ma has once again been linked to a corruption scandal. Voice of America believes that this obviously brings an ominous sign to Jack Ma’s fate.
“Crossroads” host Tang Hao once said that Alibaba and Ant Group founded by Jack Ma, Tencent and Didi Chuxing by Ma Huateng are all affiliated to the faction of former Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin. It is the cash cow used by the Jiang faction to make money, and the golden vein used to fight Xi Jinping for life and death, so Xi Jinping is bound to cut off these golden veins.
(Comprehensive report by reporter Luo Tingting/responsible editor: Wen Hui)
URL of this article: https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2022/01/27/a103331476.html