Jack Ma is just 'laying low' and ‘not missing or detained’ claim Alibaba 'sources' according to foreign reports.

Jack Ma was reported missing after economic reform speech by the Chinese billionaire founder of Alibaba drew the ire of President Xi Jinping

One of China's most successful and outspoken tycoons, Ma criticised the country's 'pawnshop' financial regulators and state-owned banks in an incendiary speech in Shanghai in October.

He called for reform of a system that 'stifled business innovation' and likened global banking regulations to an 'old people's club'. 

'Today's financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age,' Ma said Octtober 24 in Shanghai. 'We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system.'

The speech angered the Chinese government, which viewed Ma's criticisms as an attack on the authority of the Communist Party, and led to its extraordinary clampdown on Ma's business activities. 

Alibaba founder Jack Ma is not missing; he is rather “laying low” for the time being after telling off Chinese government regulators.

"He may not have shown up, but he's not missing," according to reports. “He is very likely in Hangzhou, where the headquarters of Alibaba is,”.

Speculation about Alibaba founder Jack Ma's whereabouts intensified when he failed to appear as a judge in the final episode of his own show, Africa's Business Heroes.