Jack Ma's Brilliant Response to Donald Trump!

The Jack and Donald show: Jack Ma meets Donald Trump

Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma caused quite a stir this summer by brokering a high-powered meeting in Washington between Chinese and US captains of industry. 

The July 18 meeting came several months after Ma chatted with President-elect Donald Trump in New York about a plan to create a million US jobs by enabling small businesses and farmers to sell American goods to Chinese and Asian consumers on Alibaba’s platform.

Wilbur Ross, the Trump administration’s commerce secretary, attended, as did CEO heavyweights like Blackstone Group founder Stephen Schwarzman, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of China chairman Tian Guoli.

Ma acted as master of ceremonies at the meeting, which tried to put a healing salve on such contentious issues as Chinese trade practices, bilateral investment rules and intellectual-property protection.

The upshot of the get-together, held a day before important economic talks between the US and China, was inconclusive. But US media were soon buzzing with speculation about what Ma was up to and whether he would succeed in currying favor with the White House while carrying the ball for Chinese business interests.

Stroking autocratic egos

Porter Erisman, a former Alibaba vice-president who knows Ma well, says he doesn’t know if Alibaba’s executive chairman enjoys any specific chemistry with Trump appointees like Ross. But he believes working with the White House will be a breeze for Ma because “dealing with Trump is just like dealing with the Chinese government”.

He notes that China, in essence, has an autocratic, authoritarian government and that Trump, if left unchecked, would adopt a similar autocratic style in the US.

It’s all about dealing with familiar personalities. “Dealing with Trump is probably easier for a Jack Ma than a Mark Zuckerberg, because in China, people are used to stroking the egos of autocrats,” Erisman said.

This may or may not be handy in getting the US government to clear a still-pending bid by Ma’s Ant Financial to acquire US money-transfer firm MoneyGram International for US$1.2 billion.

Ma has always been politically savvy, says Erisman, and when they worked together in China, they always looked carefully at what the company’s and government’s goals were.

“We did everything we could to highlight those aspects of our business that were aligned with the goals of Chinese government leaders,” Erisman recalled.

Erisman says Ma is focusing on the US and its market because developments have reached a critical phase – both for Alibaba and US companies.  

Alibaba, by the numbers, currently operates the largest online shopping mall in the world. Erisman argues that now is the time for US companies to reap the benefits of Alibaba’s platform by selling products to the millions of consumers in China’s hinterlands that couldn’t be reached before.

He argues that selling online to Chinese consumers in smaller cities and rural areas, will, in turn, create more US jobs. “It won’t create manufacturing jobs, but it will create jobs related to selling in China.” 

US and Chinese interests align insofar as China is trying to increase domestic consumption while Trump is trying to promote US exports under a nationalist banner. Ma, according to Erisman, is keenly aware of this convergence of interests and is deftly addressing the needs of both countries, while staying out of Trump’s crosshairs.

He calls Ma’s courting of Trump and his appearance outside Trump Tower in New York in January a “brilliant, master stroke, because Jack Ma and Alibaba could easily have ended up on the wrong side of Trump’s tweets”.

But despite his recent US focus, Erisman says Ma has his sights on a much-bigger footprint: He wants Alibaba to be the dominant e-commerce player in emerging markets in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

“Alibaba’s business model is better suited for developing countries than developed countries,” Erisman said.

Ref:http://www.atimes.com/article/jack-donald-show-jack-ma-meets-donald-trump/

Here’s the really brilliant thing about Trump’s meeting with Alibaba’s Jack Ma

Published 8:27 AM ET Tue, 10 Jan 2017

President-elect Donald Trump's meeting with Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma on Monday was brilliant — but not for the obvious reason of making him look good for being part of a conversation about creating 1 million jobs. What's really smart about it is that puts China on its heels.

Trump and Beijing have been engaged in a back-and-forth rattling of sabers from the minute Trump won the election. Remember that Trump took a congratulatory call from Taiwan's president and on the same day Trump met with Ma, a state-run Chinese tabloid warned that China would "take revenge" if Trump backed out of the one-China policy.

Enter Ma, who represents something much more dangerous to China than Taiwan ever could: An idea. In this case, the idea of individualism. And the fact that Ma and Trump discussed the even more individualistic topic of global small business entrepreneurship puts an exclamation point on it all.

Ma, Alibaba, and the Chinese government definitely have one of those "it's complicated" kind of relationships. The company became a worldwide powerhouse in large part due to the way Ma deftly handled the Chinese government. To please shareholders, Ma and Alibaba must not look like they're running afoul of Beijing in any meaningful way. But to please customers, the company has to make sure it provides as open a market as possible to exchange goods and services. It's not easy, and Alibaba's stock price has, as a result, had its volatile ups and downs during the less than two-and-a-half years since its IPO.

From China's perspective, Alibaba and Ma may be something of a necessary evil. No, they're not the kind of large corporation and boss made up of very easily-defined parts that are easier to control. But the company is essential to developing China's consumer market. The new push by Alibaba to move into the nation's rural areas, where half the population still lives, is an aggressive push to modernize the country overall. And that's something the government has been trying to do with only mixed success for almost 70 years.,

"Ma has probably gone as far as he can partnering solely with Chinese politicians and bureaucrats in that regard. As he himself has said on a number of occasions, there's only so far China can go economically with a central planning government trying to control too much."

China's government and Alibaba need each other. But like all dependent relationships, there's often at least one partner who would like a little more freedom. And Ma might have found a new ally Monday that could provide him and Alibaba with new options to wriggle a bit away from Beijing's ability to shoot them down at any time.

The Chinese government has long abandoned the idea of Communism, embracing profit-making and even some levels of economic inequality. But what China has not abandoned — from its one-child policy to its non-democratic leadership selection process — is its position on personal liberty and individuality.

But Ma, who is already more famous and recognizable than the last four or five Chinese premiers combined, is bucking that trend. He seems to want to be a global business leader and personality like Warren Buffett or Steve Jobs was. His only hope to do that is to prove he transcends the power or perceived power of the government in Beijing. And he went a long way toward doing that Monday with his summit-like meeting with Trump. It's not exactly like a significant other deciding to "see other people" — but it's close.

The threat to China's government doesn't come so much from the number of jobs an Alibaba deal with the U.S. will create or how much money in America the company will invest. The danger comes from the fact that Ma's individualism, and his current support for individualistic small businesses, could catch on in China in a big way. What the leaders in Beijing must be fearing more than anything else is hundreds of millions of Chinese children saying: "If Jack Ma can do it, why can't I?"

Of course, you don't have to be a totalitarian government to fear and covet the power and profits earned by a private sector superstar. At any time, politicians can target very successful business leaders even in the most democratic countries and find a way to tax, regulate, or even prosecute Icarus-like superstars who fly a little too close to the sun. The smart ones, like Buffett, Jobs, and the CEO/founders of Google and Facebook, find a way to make deals and partnerships with the politicians to gain some level of immunity.

Ma has probably gone as far as he can partnering solely with Chinese politicians and bureaucrats in that regard. As he himself has said on a number of occasions, there's only so far China can go economically with a central planning government trying to control too much. For Beijing, not only is that idea a danger but the fact that the person promoting it is becoming so well-known makes it much worse.

On Trump's side of things, it's not clear whether his meeting with Ma was part of an effort to tweak China or just get another one of those job creating photo ops he loves so much. But thanks to his mostly brilliantly-crafted media image, Ma is becoming the face of Chinese business more than any politician ever could. And if Trump's true goal is to improve and level economic dealings between America and China, a close relationship with Ma could be the most peaceful and least economically volatile way to make it happen.

Ref:https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/10/heres-the-really-brilliant-thing-about-trumps-meeting-with-alibabas-jack-ma-commentary.html

Beijing Sends Jack Ma To Befriends Donald Trump, Offering 1-Million Jobs

Jack Ma is perhaps one of Chinese billionaires who could talk sense into incoming President Donald Trump. After all, it takes one billionaire to know (and understand) another billionaire. It would be a suicidal mission to send a Chinese full-time politician from Beijing to talk, let alone lecture, a super-rich President-elect Trump.

With less than 2 weeks before Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, China is doing everything in its power to pull the new president on the right track. After Trump deliberately provoked Beijing with a tweet about his wonderful phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, threatening to breach the “One China” policy, all hell breaks loose.

As the incoming commander-in-chief, Trump might be eager to a military confrontation with China. He has a gorgeous wife and lots of money. But he hasn’t gotten to taste the power that comes with the job in the Oval Office. While China is determined not to be intimidated by Washington, military isn’t their first option against the mighty United States.

Trump administration might be emotional against Beijing but the Chinese are practical people. Why starts a war when they can feed the U.S. president with something he desires more – jobs for the American people. Jack Ma isn’t just another ordinary Chinese billionaire who founded the highly successful Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Mr. Ma has strong ties to mainland business interests and to the ruling party – Chinese Communist Party. From an e-commerce tycoon, he was allowed to become a media tycoon with the acquisition of the Hong Kong media group of the South China Morning Post (SCMP), after acquired stakes in Business Review, China Business Network and Youku Tudou.

With the blessing from Beijing, Jack Ma also splashed money into Sina Weibo, ChinaVision Media, Beijing Enlight Media, Snapchat and Tango. Amid growing tensions between China and the incoming Trump administration, Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma met with president-elect Donald Trump on Monday – discussing how to help U.S. small businesses.

As a businessman, Trump was particularly attracted by Ma’s proposal to create 1-million U.S. jobs by growing trade between U.S. small businesses and Chinese consumers. “We had a great meeting, and a great, great entrepreneur, one of the best in the world, and he loves this country, and he loves China,” Trump said. “Jack and I are going to do some great things.”

“It was a very productive meeting. The door is open to discuss the relationship on trade issues. We think that China and U.S.A. relationship should be strengthened, should be friendlier,” Mr. Ma said to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower. Ma specifically mentioned agricultural products such as garments, wine and fruits that could be sold through Alibaba to consumers in China and Asia.

“Alibaba will create 1 million U.S. jobs by enabling 1 million American small businesses and farmers to sell American goods to China and Asian consumers on the Alibaba platform,” Alibaba said in a statement. A recent eMarketer report estimates Chinese consumers are expected to spend more than US$150 billion on foreign goods by 2020.

Coincidently, Jack Ma’s pledge to create 1 million U.S. jobs comes after Japanese tech giant Softbank, whose CEO Masayoshi Son is on Alibaba’s board, has reiterated a commitment to create 50,000 U.S. jobs after meeting with Trump last month. It appears both billionaires knew which button to press in order to crack the tough TV-reality star “The Apprentice”.
 
However, Alibaba has a complicated relationship with U.S. regulators. The company faced an SEC investigation about its accounting methods last year, and its property, Taobao, has been rebuked by American trade officials for allowing sale of counterfeit goods. But Alibaba claimed the decision may have been political – blaming Obama administration.

Clearly, Jack Ma’s visit was to recalibrate Donald Trump’s perception about doing business with China. As Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business & Political Economy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said – “The purpose of Jack Ma’s visit was to frame Alibaba’s business with the U.S. in a framework Donald Trump understands.”

Even if Mr. Ma couldn’t swing Trump’s perception towards a friendlier Beijing-Washington relationship, Alibaba wants to highlight how it is different from Chinese state-owned enterprises in steel and other traditional sectors, areas that the Trump administration is most likely to target for sanctions as part of its effort to open up China’s markets further to U.S. goods and investment.”

Strategically, it’s beneficial to have Alibaba as Trump’s business ally. Both Jack Ma and Trump has a common enemy – Amazon. Besides being Alibaba’s business rival, Amazon has been extremely critical of Donald Trump during his presidency campaign. Amazon’s boss – Jeff Bezos – has been at war with Trump using his media “The Washington Post”.

If Alibaba could create 1-million U.S. jobs and at the same time reduce the monopoly of Amazon, it would be an irresistible offer for Trump administration. Perhaps that’s why Michael Evans, president of Alibaba Group who happens to be Trump’s friend, was convinced by Jack Ma (on behalf of Beijing) to broker the Monday meeting with Donald.

Ref:http://www.financetwitter.com/2017/01/beijing-sends-jack-ma-to-befriends-donald-trump-offering-one-million-jobs.html