In the last Hacker News thread, people were so sure that the government jailed him for criticizing the party. Even though there was no evidence of such, people just assumed it MUST be true because the CCP MUST be evil.

And before Jack Ma "disappeared", people were worried about Jack Ma and Ant Group being a national security threat, because of his ties with CCP. Because "CCP evil". No matter the facts, people just conveniently change their interpretation to shoehorn everything in a nonsensical "see, CCP is evil" narrative.

I think it's time to accept that most people have a SERIOUSLY deranged and inaccurate view of China, and that things in China are far more complex and nuanced than people give it credit for. I say this as someone who's born in China, and have a Chinese wife, and family in China. Maybe there's an alternative point of view than "CCP is evil" that is at least just as valid.

So it turns out he was just laying low after all. Yes his comments were not appreciated, but that doesn't mean they jail anyone for the slightest criticism. The reason why his comments upset people is because China, after having experienced a huge boom in material wealth in the 2000s, which accompanied mass government corruption and increase in inequality, China is now in a phase with more focus on equality and sharing the wealth. Jack's criticism hit a nerve because it came over as a rich man trying to change society for his own benefit, rather than lifting society with him.

See Cyrus Janssen's blog post about this: https://cyrusjanssen.substack.com/p/trump-free-speech-and-wh... Cyrus is an expat who has worked in China for 12 years.

Does China have problems? Of course it does. But that doesn't mean we need to villify it at every turn, and interpret everything in the worst possible manner in the absence of evidence.

When the west better understands China, and when the west and China come together, the whole world wins.