P.S. I am Chinese and hold a neutral stance on US/Chinese political systems, but economics common sense tells me Jack Ma spat out quite some hypocritical BS there.
That means they're likely complicit in any information gathering the government wants to perform on its citizens as a precondition to their continued operations. The Chinese government is probably all too happy to see these "monopolies" that are effectively playing ball with the government, since the more users that adopt their platform, the more data they have on their citizens.
And this is not even touching on how they can exert themselves on these Chinese internet companies to shape the conversations that are happening online.
Of course you probably already know all this :P
I think both China and US have their own "ways of doing things" that disadvantage foreign players, but I do think at this stage China has some catching up to do if it wants to claim to be an open, level playing field, etc, and Ma is in no position to be talking about such a thing.
“I gave advice to Jeff Bezos 10 years ago,” Mr. Ma said, referring to Amazon.com Inc.’s chief executive. “I said: ‘Please send people with entrepreneurial spirit, not professional management. Because wherever you go, doing business in another country is very difficult.’”
...
Mr. Ma spoke out against the perception that U.S. companies can’t succeed in China, citing Microsoft Corp. and Coca-Cola Co. as businesses that have thrived here.
“Give me five examples of Chinese companies that succeed in America,” he said. “Or Asian companies that succeed in America. Because it’s not easy to do business across nations, it takes time.”
He's stating the obvious (typical success story speech with no substance). It's way too generic to be a legit advice, and "entrepreneurial spirit" is definitely not why his company succeeded.
> “Give me five examples of Chinese companies that succeed in America,” he said. “Or Asian companies that succeed in America. Because it’s not easy to do business across nations, it takes time.”
He equates a highly controlled market with a relatively free market. Either he does not understand economics or he stirred up the concept intentionally. It's not easy to do business across nations, but clearly one market is easier to access than the other.
Look, I understand why lots of people worship Jack Ma. He's like the Steve Jobs/Bill Gates of China, but even those two had taken advantage of things most entrepreneurs had not. All in all, I care more about the health of economy of my home country than what Jack Ma has to say about U.S. companies.