Alibaba Founder Jack Ma’s Tiananmen Comments Draw Ire
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder and executive chairman Jack Ma labeled the 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square as “the most correct decision” at the time and broached the subject of Chinese Internet censorship in a recent interview, drawing sharp criticism online.
Mr. Ma, who spoke with Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post on May 30, brought up the 1989 crackdown in response to a question about the former leader of the company’s Alibaba.com unit following a raft of fraud at the company. A transcript of the interview was posted on the newspaper’s Chinese website on July 13.