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I think it's a mistake to attribute all the success to hard work and all the headwinds to state intervention. More realistically, Jack Ma was seen as "on side"
by SilverBirch 4y ago
I think it's a mistake to attribute all the success to hard work and all the headwinds to state intervention. More realistically, Jack Ma was seen as "on side" for the CCP and so it was acceptable for his companies to succeed. There were always some questions around what he said in interviews - but it's impossible to argue with a billionaire. Now he's "off side" -he's not an ally of the regime and so he can't succeed.
If he really is the genius that we all know he is, he'll build a billion dollar company in Japan. If he was just in a good spot with the government in China, then maybe not.
- Vt71fcAqt7 4y agoI took GP as saying that the current chinese system, whatever it is (socialism, state-managed capitalism, whatever) is removing incentives for entrepreneurs. Perhaps entrepreneurs are not necessary in the first place, or perhaps it is still worth it to become an entrepreneur in China even if you have to check out in the end (I'm sure he's still well off, please correct me if I'm wrong). Only time will tell, but I don't think GP is saying that Ma's success was inevitable, only that his exit has shown future businessmen in China what the new* terms of the game are. *one might say these were always the terms
- michaelbrave 4y agoI would kinda argue that the regime changed more than Ma did, since 2017-ish the CCP has cracked down especially hard on all kinds of things that seem strange to me and on things they were kinda lax about before.