After Jack Ma, the founder of TikTok: Chinese Big Tech in the grip of the Communist Party
Nothing escapes the searching eye of the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party. Nor are the many local tycoons who have accumulated enormous personal fortunes since Deng Xiaoping, after Mao's death, invited all his fellow citizens to seek wealth without taking into account the old Marxist ideological prejudices.
From the party's point of view, billionaire entrepreneurs have an unforgivable flaw. In other words, they believe that the money accumulated in spades – often in a very short time – protects them from the lightning of the communist nomenklatura . And they also think that business experience empowers them to give advice to those who really rule in Beijing.
While some margin of autonomy was previously tolerated, the advent of Xi Jinping and his management team has put things back in place, so to speak.
Although many in the West continue to argue that the People's Republic is a Communist nation in name only, the reality is quite different. Xi has given back to the Party a power and authority that no one, without exception, can question.
The billionaires, even if they necessarily have the Party card in their pocket, must not delude themselves into pursuing autonomous economic or political strategies. The success achieved in business does not guarantee them any position of privilege and, if they are called to order by Xi and his followers, they have to bow their heads without making a fuss.
The famous Jack Ma, founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, knows something about it. After publicly criticizing the backwardness of the Chinese banking system, his company was heavily sanctioned by the Party-State.
Jack Ma himself has practically disappeared from the radar , and we haven't heard from him for quite some time. He probably figured out that he'd better keep quiet to avoid worse trouble. Money, in China, does not provide guarantees against a possible stay in the famous "camps" where dissidents of all kinds as well as members of unwelcome ethnic minorities are "re-educated".
Now it seems to be the turn of Zhang Yiming, the 38-year-old founder of the TikTok entertainment platform, which has a huge number of users even in the West (including Italy). Credited with a personal fortune of 36 billion dollars, the young entrepreneur suddenly discovered "that he is not the social type" (sic). He therefore intends to devote himself to "solitary" activities such as surfing online , reading, fantasizing and listening to music.
Naturally, international analysts immediately ate the leaf. Zhang fears that he will end up like Jack Ma, and therefore tries to evade sanctions and censorship with swift preventive action.
In reality, TikTok , in the eyes of the Communist Party, is even more dangerous than Alibaba. It is in fact a platform frequented by young and very young people (even if not only). It is therefore an ideal breeding ground for the growth of any influencers . The weight that the latter have acquired in the West is well known, often managing to condition the political and social life of a nation. Just think, for example, of the " Fedez case" in Italy.
The People's Republic, however, cannot afford to have such figures in its own territory. If this were to happen, the absolute domination of public opinion that the Party holds and has no intention of losing would come into crisis.
Meanwhile, the People's Republic antitrust has threatened other local tech giants with severe sanctions. So it's okay to make money, but the mind and soul of the "people" must remain totally in the hands of the Party. In the face of all those who no longer consider present-day China a communist.
The post After Jack Ma, the founder of TikTok: Chinese Big Tech in the grip of the Communist Party appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/dopo-jack-ma-il-fondatore-di-tiktok-le-big-tech-cinesi-nella-morsa-del-partito-comunista/ on Sat, 22 May 2021 03:58:00 +0000.