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© 2022 AFPAlibaba founder Jack Ma living in Japan after China tech crackdown: Financial Times
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© 2022 AFP
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wolfshine
This is a cleverly crafted way of saying he's trying to escape China and would jump at the opportunity to renounce his citizenship to live in Japan for the rest of his life.
It will begin with China's business and paranoid political elite, but eventually large segments of the population will seek refuge here. Japan should see this as an opportunity to mitigate the labor crisis and population decline.
Aly Rustom
Would be a smart move.
Agree
JJ W
I dunno, Japan has been demonstrably averse to long-term, mass immigration. Especially if it means importing more people from so-called adversarial Asian countries like South Korea and China.
Pretty sure the authorities would rather develop caretaker robots than deal with "Zainichi trouble" and "cultural infiltration."
TokyoLiving
Stay here Jack, help with Japan's technology and become a citizen..
Desert Tortoise
He can reconstitute his Hupan School of Business somewhere where it is welcome and not seen as a threat to those in power. I wish him well.
1glenn
Xi's policies are shaped to keep him in power, not to make the country stronger.
Numan
I wonder how much of his business that he had to give up to the CCP to guarantee the safety of his extended family and to escape China!
nishikat
If they did it in a legal process with politically established courts rather than what China does:
Musk: He got himself in a legal bind with his big mouth and was force to pay 44B for garbage. The American system is working against him in that regard.
Zuckerberg: What's the big deal? Just don't use FB and I might use my account a few times a year for a specific purpose rather than brainwashed and glued to it and feeling sorry for myself 10 hours per day.
Soros: Don't know much about the guy, can't comment. What's the problem with Soros?
Gates: Really? He just created Micro$oft and got to admit, the man can make money.
Again, how do the people above have too much sway in my life?
The US system (any country's system including Japan's) with a politically established legal/courts system is best and it seems China is going the other way with Xi as dictator. Look at their COVID disaster and it's a sign of other disasters to come there.
Joe Blow
Do you really want Japan to become China?
It'll be a dump.
Sven Asai
Yes, ok why not, Japan is a good place for asylum, but why hasn’t he the kindness to create with his extraordinary wealth amount a similarly successful enterprise here in his new host place? Or maybe he already secretly has?
Nemo
The CCP is such a totalitarian dicatorship that even the wealthy cannot stand to exist there. The only difference between Jack Ma and the average Chinese citizen is that he has the means to escape and they do not.
wallace
He would have ended up in a prison. Japan is a good place for asylum if you are a billionaire.
Septim Dynasty
This is absolutely funny. Japanese elites talk to their ultranationalist constituents that they won't ever allow a single Chinese elite to buy and control any land in Japan. Now, we have tons of wealthy Chinese and other Asians buying and controlling Japan's pieces everywhere.
Jack Ma is the latest hotshot in the game of carving up Japan for foreign rule. After Abe's assassination, the hypocrisy exposure of Japanese elites keeps piling up!!
Peter Neil
Wonder what kind of visa that would be to stay for six months?
Wonder what he does when his Chinese passport expires?
Strangerland
I'd guess an investor visa.
https://www.japanvisa.com/visas/japan-investor-visa
wolfshine
I don't entirely blame them for feeling that way. In all fairness, recent mass migration to the US and Europe has been a disaster. This is because they don't do enough to foster cultural assimilation, and instead, try to take the "multicultural" highroad, because it sells as a political narrative.
I don't agree. The reality is, if you remove the politics and foreign alliances, culturally these two societies have a lot in common. They both excessively value hard work in school and jobs, hardly question hierarchy or authority, keep their public and private feelings separate, respect/support people on the basis of their age, ect. In summary, Chinese immigrants can easily assimilate into Japan unlike the situations we see in other countries. I think they would want that as well. In two-three generations, they are essentially absorbed into Japan's main ethnic demographic, anyway.
There is a midpoint between these two perspectives. I don't think it's likely to happen, but a few million Chinese immigrants would objectively benefit Japan economically.
Desert Tortoise
Mainland Chinese who grew up under communist rule are often not very nice people. Mao destroyed classical Chinese culture and replaced it with??? The driving force in China is acquisition of wealth. That is the only value left. As a result Chinese can be exceptionally greedy, acquisitive, have sharp elbows, hot tempers, are rude and often have a superiority complex. How often have I been told dismissively "China is the world's oldest culture, what could you possibly know?". The Japanese are much nicer overall. Much nicer. The few Taiwanese I have met are more like the Japanese.
WilliaminTK
I hope I run into this dude as his Alibaba company sucks. I have been dealing with an order for 10 months and still no resolution. They don’t protect the buyers and only care about getting their cut from the sellers. I will never use them again!
Strangerland
I'm sure a billionaire will be happy to listed to your gripe eagerly, on bated breath.
Stephen Chin
Positively the best way to bolster Japan's dwindling population is to encourage single Chinese men and single Chinese women to settle in Japan. Not so long ago, China's population grew so rapidly that the government had to pass a law limiting each family to one child. Only recently did the law relax to allow two or three to a family. What a wonderfully beautiful way to kick start a friendship between Japan and China that will eventually prove strong, fruitfully positive and lay the foundations for a sincerely inspired natural friendship that will also give rise to a long lasting peace between countries who are next door neighbours to one another.
kaimycahl
LOL Jack Ma isn't the only citizen of China is leaving or trying to get out
Joe Blow
They can absorb but most Japanese will consider them to be foreigners and socially isolate them, so they end up sticking to their enclaves.
Besides, the two cultures aren't completely similar really. Japan emphasizes doing things right the first time, and most people try not to cut corners or make things quickly and cheaply. Japan also emphasizes natural beauty and tasteful urban planning, both of which are secondary (at best) concerns to most in China.
wolfshine
How so? I don't think I've really noticed this that much. Though I would agree they put emphasis on the やり方 (or as we would call "best practices"), rejection of all failure is not a trait commonly shared across the board completely. Then again, I am a foreigner living here.
I really have to disagree with you here. Look no further than the video game industry, something Japan typically has a good reputation for. Nintendo, the worlds most famous company in the industry, still cannot build an online gaming service to save their life. Cheaply made and they cut a lot of corners. Just look at Japanese schools. The majority of them are dilapidated, may not withstand future earthquakes, and don't even have central air. This isn't true for everything the Japanese do, but it does end up being the case a lot of the time.
A lot of Japan looks pretty ugly and gaudy. Especially outside of Tokyo where the concrete apartment blocks and advertisements clash with all of the stuff that's actually natural.
Joe Blow
As bad as those things are in Japan they're worse in China. Unless it's something that's recently built with lots of government funding, most stuff in China is poorly made and falling apart.
Japan's ugly buildings and architecture look like Switzerland compared to China's ugly buildings and architecture.