Speaker A
"They came to me directly, saying that in this situation, maybe you’d listen to a few things if I were the one saying them." Huang Youlong immediately pressed Jack Ma, "Did they personally guarantee this to you?" Jack Ma’s answer was, "I don’t know about guarantees, but either way, you have no other path." "I personally think you have no other choice; they are offering you this policy now, but if you don't return, they will certainly go after you." Simply put, Jack Ma was in a difficult position himself. To protect himself, he had to bite the bullet and call a long-time friend. Ironically, this recording ended up saving Huang Youlong, becoming the evidence for the French court to reject China's extradition request. Why was that? Because in the recording, Jack Ma inadvertently revealed that while China officially cited a money laundering case, the real underlying intention was to force him back to testify as a tainted witness in the Sun Lijun case. "Some things don't need me to say—you understand in your heart that you aren't the target; they are after Sun Lijun, not you." "You understand the gravity of the situation, right? It would be best if I get a word back these two days. Alright, that’s it." Upon hearing this, the French court concluded, "Isn't this just politically motivated?" Therefore, it was immediately determined that Huang Yonglong would face the risk of political persecution if he returned to China, and the extradition request from China was rejected in court. Now, Huang Yonglong is off the hook, but Jack Ma is in an even more awkward position. One must realize that the point at which Jack Ma was forced to make this call was right at the height of the anti-monopoly investigation into Alibaba. Having experienced various summons himself, he was already like a Bodhisattva crossing a river, barely able to save himself. He forced himself to make those calls, originally hoping it would be a chance to cooperate with the government and earn merit to offset his faults, but who would have thought that by being quick-tongued and revealing the high-level authorities' true intentions, he would instead mess everything up. It seems this doomed Jack Ma to no possibility of a comeback, because his opponent, the one truly in charge and pulling the strings behind the scenes, was none other than China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. Under such extreme fear, he began frantically leveraging his connections, trying to request meetings with those in Xi Jinping’s inner circle. As it turned out, no one was willing to see him; everyone stayed far away. Completely at his wit's end, Jack Ma ultimately had no choice but to write a personal letter to Xi Jinping and submit it. In the letter, he displayed an extremely low profile, not only expressing a deep reflection on his past actions but also clearly stating his willingness to dedicate the rest of his life to rural education and poverty alleviation in China. Just like that, that once arrogant and flamboyant Jack Ma, who had been placed on a pedestal by countless people, finally realized after being struck by the General Secretary’s iron fist that he could only end up as a rural poverty-alleviation teacher. Now, you might be curious whether the General Secretary ever saw this letter. Of course he did; at an internal high-level meeting in May 2021, the General Secretary even publicly mentioned the letter. As for whether the General Secretary forgave him, that is a different matter. Before answering this question, we must first figure out how exactly Jack Ma offended so many people. Everyone thinks Jack Ma suffered this disaster solely because of that speech at the 2020 Bund Summit, where he scolded the regulators. To be fair, this argument sounds quite reasonable, but if everyone really thinks that, it’s just too simplistic. His remarks at th
