In 1999, Ma and his friends launched Alibaba, an online platform connecting Chinese manufacturers with global buyers. The company's success was meteoric, culminating in the world's largest stock market flotation in New York in 2014, raising $25 billion. Ma became not just China's richest man but a global icon of entrepreneurship, even accompanying President Xi Jinping on a visit to the U.S.
However, Ma's rise was not without controversy. His company's growing influence and occasional confrontations with regulators began to raise eyebrows in Beijing. Ma's habit of making provocative statements, coupled with his global prominence, made the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) increasingly uneasy.