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  • Chinese billionaire Jack Ma  has been hiding a dirty secret

  • And it involves a high level power struggle 

  • within the Chinese Communist Party

  • Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris  Chappell. And boy do I have a doozy of  

  • an episode for you today. But rememberYouTube is demonetizing us all the time.  

  • The only reason I can bring you these  episodes is thanks to the support  

  • of viewers like you on the crowdfunding website  Patreon. Head over to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored,  

  • and for as little as a dollar an  episode, you can help me make this show.

  • Now as you may rememberone of China's richest men,  

  • Jack Ma, disappeared for three months  after criticizing state regulators.

  • Generally the Chinese Communist Party doesn't  take criticism well. And during the time Ma was  

  • disappeared,” the Communist Party blocked  the IPO of Ma's company Ant Financial.

  • That IPO would have been worth  over 300 billion dollars.

  • Now Ma has recently been  appearing in public again

  • But it turns out there was much more to this  story than what was previously reported.

  • The Party didn't block Ant Financial's IPO just  because Jack Ma criticized Chinese regulators.

  • I mean, that didn't help. But it was also  about a deadly battle for power between rival  

  • factions within the Chinese Communist Party  itself. And you know what that means. It's  

  • time for another episode of everyone's favorite  Communist Party soap opera, General Hostility.

  • Previously on General Hostility: Chinese leader Xi Jinping  

  • is locked in a desperate bid for power. His  enemies—a rival political faction tied to former  

  • Chinese leader and human toad hybrid Jiang ZeminJiang's connections spread out like a spider web  

  • throughout China, waiting to ensnare Xi  Jinping. And this time the bait...is an Ant.

  • That's right, it turns out Jack Ma and Ant  Financial have some pretty close ties to  

  • Jiang Zemin's faction. And that could be the real  reason Xi Jinping blocked Ant Financial's IPO.

  • Because according to the Wall Street  Journal, Xi personally blocked the IPO.

  • You know, that time Jack Ma did a cringe-worthy  Michael Jackson impersonation on stageturns  

  • out, it wasn't the most ill-advised  decision he's ever made after all.  

  • At least when he says that Billie  Jean is not his lover, I believe him.

  • Anyway, back to less disturbing topicslike Communist Party factional infighting.  

  • More than a dozen Chinese officials and government  

  • advisers secretly spoke to the Wall  Street Journal for this article

  • They told the Journal of “a previously  unreported central-government investigation

  • ...that found through an opaque  web of investment structures,  

  • that some of Xi Jinping's biggest enemies were  heavily invested in Ant Financial. And they all  

  • stood to make billions of dollars from the IPOThat is, until Xi Jinping (Corner Box) stopped it.

  • It turns out the grandson of  former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin,  

  • Jiang Zhicheng, was a major  investor in Ant Financial.

  • But it was well hidden. But  I'll uncover it after the break.

  • Welcome back. Jiang Zhicheng wasmajor investor in Ant Financialbut  

  • here's how it was hidden. Jiang Zhicheng cofounded  a company called Boyu Capital. Then Boyu Capital  

  • set up this subsidiary in Shanghai. Which then put  money into a private equity firm called Beijing  

  • Jingguan Investment Center. And it was that  company that finally invested in Ant Financial.

  • It's like six degrees of Kevin  Bacon, but with investment firms  

  • that funnel millions of dollars  to China's corrupt elite

  • The Beijing Jingguan investment firm eventually  got “a nearly 1% stake in the company,  

  • according to Ant's IPO document, putting  it among its top 10 shareholders.”

  • However, in Ant Financial's official documents,  

  • there's no mention of how Beijing Jingguan  relates to Jiang Zhicheng or his other companies.

  • But it turns out Jack Ma and  Jiang Zhicheng go way back.

  • In fact, Jiang Zhicheng played a big role  in making Jack Ma one of China's richest  

  • men. It has to do with a deal that gave Ma more  control over another company Ma created, Alibaba.

  • Back in 2012, Zhicheng ledgroup of some of China's biggest  

  • state-linked investment firms to help Ma  buy out half of Yahoo's stake in Alibaba.

  • And that chunk of Alibaba, “soared in value when  

  • the company listed on the New York  Stock Exchange two years later.”

  • So a lot of people tied to Jiang Zemin  

  • made a lot of money. But the connections between  Ma and Jiang Zemin go beyond Jiang's grandson

  • I'll tell you more after the commercial break.

  • Welcome back.

  • Why did Xi Jinping block the IPO of Ant FinancialAccording to the Chinese officials who secretly  

  • spoke to the Wall Street Journal, Xi Jinping  had little interest in having the Ant IPO  

  • funnel enormously lucrative financial  stakes to his political enemies.

  • And it was much more than just Jiang Zhichengthe grandson of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.

  • Also secretly invested in Ant Financial was the  son-in-law of a powerful retired Party official  

  • in Jiang Zemin's faction. This is Jia QinglinHe's a former member of the Politburo Standing  

  • Committee, the most powerful group of men in  China. He was very close with Jiang Zemin

  • Well, Jia Qinglin's son-in-law is Li BotanHe controls the Beijing Zhaode Investment  

  • Group. And through a series of different  companies, he invested big in Ant Financial.

  • This is not the first time Li Botan and  Xi Jinping have gone to blows either.  

  • Li owned a fancy private club for Communist Party  elite called the Maotai Club. Xi was not a fan.

  • Events like those held by Mr. Li's Maotai Club  were seen by [Xi Jinping] as harmful to the party.  

  • 'You people, you either eat and  drink yourselves into the grave,  

  • or die between the sheets,' he said at a meeting  with senior officials earlier in his tenure.”

  • Somehow I get the feeling Xi just  wasn't invited to the parties.

  • But these kinds of complicated political  connections are just how business is done  

  • in China's corrupt system. China's  economy may look like capitalism,  

  • but it's not a free market. It's actually  under heavy Communist Party control.

  • It wasn't just people tied to the Jiang faction  that got rich through investing in Ant Financial.  

  • Plenty of other rich and powerful Chinese  elite also had a stake. And Ma also  

  • encouraged investment from Chinese state-run  investment funds, too. Which was a smart move

  • See, Jack Ma became successful, not  through his ideas and hard work alone.  

  • No, he was only able to make  it because in the process,  

  • he made well-connected Party leaders rich as wellHe was able to avoid a lot of regulatory pressure  

  • on Ant Financial by giving state backed companies  and powerful individuals a stake in the company.

  • Having such 'strategic investors' on  boardall poised to profit from the IPOhelped  

  • Ant's stock-listing application  sail through various levels of  

  • securities regulators last summer...The  application was approved in a month.”

  • Of course, if you find yourself on  the wrong side of a power struggle,  

  • those same connections end up hurting youThe Chinese Communist Party can take away  

  • the promise of a free market based on  its political whims. That's because  

  • it was never a free market in the first placeIt was always Party controlled. And it can  

  • also take away your personal freedomand make you vanish anytime it wants.

  • Now, I'm not saying that Jack Ma and Ant  Financial's connections to the Jiang faction  

  • are the only reason that Xi  Jinping blocked Ant's IPO

  • From the Chinese regime's point of view, there  were other problems, like the fact that Ant  

  • Financial was making money from people's data  but not sharing that data with the government.

  • And it was making loans and selling financial  products without having to meet the same  

  • requirements as a bank. Basically, it could  make money off of financial transactions,  

  • while state-run banks actually supplied the  money for the loans and took on most of the risk.

  • So if people couldn't pay back  those Ant Financial loans,  

  • it's actually the state-run  banks that would be in trouble

  • But adding the fact that the  Ant Financial IPO would enrich  

  • the close relatives of his political enemies,  

  • well I'm just going to guess that cancelling it  wasn't a really hard decision for Xi Jinping.

  • In any case, the situation with Ant Financial  shows pretty clearly all of the deeply entrenched  

  • ways that Chinese Communist Party officials  and their relatives are getting rich in China.  

  • But what will the aftermath be

  • Chinese leader Xi Jinping stopped his enemies  from getting rich quick. Well, from getting even  

  • richer, quick. And China's highest paid Michael  Jackson impersonator got burned in the process.  

  • So what happens next? Will the Jiang faction try  to get back at Xi Jinping for making them less  

  • rich? Will they try to get rid of Xi entirelyFind out next time, on General Hostility.

  • And now, as a thank you to everyone who's  joined the China Uncensored 50 cent Army  

  • and supports China Uncensored on Patreon,  I'll answer one of their questions.

  • Today's question comes from Lunar Worx  “Hey Chris, what does Matt do off screen?  

  • Is he there for comic relief, or just  to do all your top secret research?”

  • Oh that's a good question Lunar Worx. Obviouslycan't mention all the top secret stuff Matt does.  

  • Or it wouldn't be top secret

  • But Matt does a lot for the showWhy, he's recording me right now.  

  • He also helps manage our team and  keeps everything running smoothly.  

  • About the only thing he doesn't do is help  water the plants. That's my job. And of course,  

  • he's the one we make watch things like the Hunter  Biden sex tapes. And we all know how that went.

  • He's sacrificed a lot for this show

  • So thank you Lunar Worx and all the 50 Cent Army  

  • for supporting the show. So we can  make Matt do all kinds of things.

  • Once again I'm Chris ChappellThanks for watching China Uncensored.

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma  has been hiding a dirty secret

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