Xi Jinping, the country’s leader since 2012, has instead moved China toward a much more authoritarian and state-led society in which national security concerns increasingly take precedence over economic growth. Business leaders and human rights activists who dare to question Mr. Xi in public have been jailed as China has tightened its controls on the private sector.
Very wealthy entrepreneurs could “do whatever they wanted as long as they didn’t cross certain political boundaries, but even during Xi Jinping’s first term in office, which ended in 2017, those boundaries were fairly loose.” ,” said Victor Shih. , an expert in Chinese business and politics at the University of California, San Diego. “Everything has changed, they are not such stars anymore.”
Alibaba’s co-founder Jack Ma, who led the company to dominance in China’s e-commerce sector, has stepped down as the company’s top executive. Colin Huang, the founder of Alibaba’s rival Pinduo, resigned Earlier last year, less than a year after stepping down as CEO, I became chairman.
A year ago, Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, said he was handing over the post of chief executive to focus on long-term strategy. And when Shanghai went into a two-month lockdown last spring as part of China’s “Covid-zero” strategy, Zhou Hang, another prominent tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist, decided to move to Vancouver, Canada. left the city, where he strongly condemned the current situation in China. policy.
Soho China’s troubles are piling up. The company said on July 7 that police were investigating its chief financial officer for alleged insider trading of Soho shares. Over the past year, SoHo has been accused of overcharging tenants for electricity and fined nearly $30 million.
Soho China and Zhang, who spoke frequently on behalf of the company, did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comment. Two company executives, Xu Jin and Chen Ting, who have each worked in Soho for about 20 years, have been promoted to co-chief executives, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Wednesday. Mr. Huang Jingsheng, his executive in private equity, was appointed non-executive chairman of the company.