Alibaba founder Jack Ma recently made a high-profile appearance in Africa, showing up in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where he was received by Rwandan President Paul Kagame along with Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.
President Kagame took to social media to announce that he had met with Jack Ma and Jerry Yang on Saturday afternoon to participate in the “Africa’s Business Heroes” (ABH) event, which Alibaba supports in Africa.
Jack Ma’s visit to Africa this time revolves around the “Africa’s Business Heroes” project, with Jerry Yang joining him at related events and receiving a special audience from President Kagame of Rwanda.
The “Africa’s Business Heroes” project, initiated by the Jack Ma Foundation and supported by Alibaba, aims to empower entrepreneurs in Africa.
In fact, this is not Jack Ma’s first visit to Africa, and he has had interactions with President Kagame before. In 2017, they met at the African Youth Summit, and in 2018, they collaborated on the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP). They crossed paths again in September 2025 during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
However, Jack Ma’s international activities have been intertwined with his situation in China. In October 2020, his speech at the Shanghai Lujiazui Financial Forum publicly criticizing the Chinese Communist Party’s financial regulatory system sparked controversy, angering authorities. Subsequently, the Ant Group’s IPO was abruptly halted, and Jack Ma gradually faded from the public eye in China.
An article published by the English media outlet Financial Times in April 2021 titled “The Disappearance of a Tycoon: How Jack Ma Offended Xi Jinping” revealed that Jack Ma’s conflicts with senior CCP officials did not happen overnight. The article mentioned that in 2015, Jack Ma accompanied Xi Jinping on a visit to the US, but as his influence on the international stage grew, he was seen as overshadowing the senior CCP leadership, leading to retaliation.
The investigation by the media revealed that the conflict between Jack Ma and senior CCP officials had been brewing for some time. The CCP leadership could no longer tolerate Jack Ma positioning himself as the “leader of the Chinese economy” on the international stage.
The report also highlighted an incident at the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos where Jack Ma hosted a high-profile banquet, inviting various heads of state, government leaders, and Western business magnates like Bill Gates to attend, which garnered significant attention. In contrast, Liu He, who was the Director of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs of the CCP and an important economic aide to Xi Jinping, did not attend the banquet but gave a speech the following day at the forum. This contrast was seen as a symbolic gesture by the outside world.
Jack Ma’s immense influence left the CCP leadership feeling disgruntled. In the following years, Jack Ma spent more time overseas. Starting in 2018, he visited France, Thailand, Israel, Jordan, and, noticeably, increased his time spent abroad by purchasing vineyards and properties in Europe.
In the politically charged environment of the CCP stressing the “one center of power,” Jack Ma had various identities: a global capital market star, a symbol of private enterprise, and an unofficial international figure. As the Financial Times pointed out, this level of personal influence ultimately became a political risk.