Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who has rarely been seen in public for the past three years, has reappeared at a school in Hangzhou, according to a report.
The 58-year-old has kept a low profile since criticizing China’s financial regulators in 2020.
Mr. Ma was the most notorious Chinese billionaire who disappeared in a crackdown on tech entrepreneurs.
He recently returned to China after more than a year abroad, according to the South China Morning Post.
Alibaba-owned newspaper said he made a brief stopover in Hong Kong, where he met friends and also briefly attended Art Basel, an international art fair.
It added that Mr. Ma has traveled to different countries to learn about agricultural technology, but did not mention why he has disappeared from the public eye in recent years.
Mr. Ma, once China’s richest man, relinquished control of financial technology giant Ant Group in January this year.
Some commentators saw this as further evidence that he had come into conflict with the Chinese Communist Party for becoming outspoken and too powerful.
In October 2020, Mr. Ma said at a financial conference that traditional banks have a “pawn shop mentality.”
The following month, Ant’s planned £26 billion IPO, which would have been the world’s largest, was called off at the last minute by Chinese authorities, citing “major problems” in regulating the company.
The first reported public sighting of Mr. Ma since then was in January this year. The Financial Times newspaper said he was spotted in Tokyo, Japan. This led to rumors that he had been placed under house arrest or otherwise imprisoned.
Some even asked if he was still alive.
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