Jack Ma Spotted a Muay Thai Match at Bangkok’s Rajadamnern Stadium

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma was spotted watching a Muay Thai match at Bangkok’s Rajadamnern Stadium. He was photographed with his fists raised while facing legendary Muay Thai boxer Buakaw Banchamek in the stadium’s VIP section.

Jack Ma is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a Chinese multinational technology conglomerate focused on e-commerce, he also owns the South China Morning Post.

According to recent media reports, he has been living in Tokyo with his family for more than six months after disappearing from public view following China’s crackdown on the tech sector. Mr Ma reportedly has traveled to the United States, Spain, and Israel during his stay in Japan.

He has kept a low profile since the crackdown, which resulted in Chinese regulators canceling Ant Group’s initial public offering and slapping Alibaba with record fines.

Ma chastised China’s financial regulators in October 2020, accusing state banks of having a “pawnshop mentality” and calling for bold new players to extend credit to poor people who lack collateral.

For the first time, his e-commerce behemoth Alibaba reported flat revenue growth in August, as China battled an economic slowdown and resurgent Covid-19 cases.

Jack Ma living in Japan

US authorities have placed the company on a watch-list, which could result in its delisting from the New York Stock Exchange if it fails to comply with disclosure orders, causing its shares to plummet.

In a rare public appearance, Jack Ma, who has kept a low profile since Beijing’s regulatory crackdown two years ago, spoke about the hardships people faced in 2022, just as China grapples with the country’s largest ever Covid-19 outbreak.

“I hope to see you all offline as soon as possible,” Ma said in a two-and-a-half-minute video posted on social media and verified by his charity foundation.

His exact location was not revealed by the address. The billionaire was dressed in a white shirt and sat behind a round table in front of a black wall adorned with artwork in the video.

“Teachers have had a difficult year,” he told 100 rural Chinese teachers in a live video speech that has become an annual event under his Rural Teachers Initiative. “You had to teach while also protecting the kids.”

Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Holding’s free-trade zone project in Thailand, which was launched in 2018 while company founder Jack Ma was still chairman, has finally begun trial operation.

The digital hub in the Eastern Economic Corridor, a special economic zone comprised of three provinces in eastern Thailand, is part of the electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), a multinational initiative supported by Ma to promote global trade.

According to an eWTP statement on its official WeChat channel, the free-trade zone, which covers an area of 40,000 square meters (430,000 square feet), has bonded warehouses that can stock imported commodities after entry declaration.