Media Asia SYHP/Weibo
- Jack Ma made his first public appearance since China fined Alibaba, the tech company he founded.
- He was at a video meeting of the Russian Geographical Society with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
- Ma has kept a low profile since China cracked down on his companies.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
The Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has made his first public appearance since China cracked down on him and fined his companies.
Last week China fined e-commerce company Alibaba, which Ma co-founded, $2.8 billion for antitrust cases. The fine was first reported by Chinese media on Saturday.
Ma has since showed up at a video conference meeting of the Russian Geographical Society with Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 14. He is on the group's board of trustees, but did not speak at the event. You can watch a clip of the event here.
Ma is no longer the head of Alibaba, but remains a major shareholder.
China has for months been cracking down on Alibaba and Ant Group, the financial-services company Ma founded and controls.
Ma was not seen publicly between an October 31 event and a video-conference clip on January 20, prompting widespread speculation over his whereabouts.
His disappearance from public life came after he criticized China's financial regulatory system on October 24. And in November, China introduced new regulations that halted the Ant Group IPO.
Ant Group announced this week that it had agreed to restructure and allow its work to be overseen more tightly after demands from the Chinese government.
As of Thursday, Ma is the richest man in China, according to Forbes.