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[It has been rumored everywhere that Jack Ma was forced out of Alibaba by the Party.

Of course, officially, he said he stepped down on his own accord.]

He owns the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s English language paper, which produces warts-and-all reports on China. I expect the party hasn’t done much beyond pushing him out of Alibaba, yet, because that might result in massive capital flight. Prior revolutions in China, especially against the regime of the Last (de jure) Emperor, were heavily financed by Chinese emigres. It would not surprise me that if any such movement exists today, it is being financed by overseas Chinese, some of whom moved their money (and persons) out just for that purpose. Sun Yat-sen, the man credited with tying many of the rebel factions together, was pretty creative in getting funding for the people who finally toppled the final de jure absolute ruler.

http://sunyatsenhawaii.org/2008/09/02/financing-revolution-sun-yat-sen-and-the-overthrow-of-the-ching-dynasty/

The imperial monopoly on certain business sectors, combined with random seizures of whatever large private fortunes were accumulated, was imperial China’s way of avoiding the fate of the European kings, who were gradually squeezed out by merchant princes, or businessmen who grew increasingly resentful of royal intrusions into their business activities. Historically, Chinese regimes have dealt with this problem by seizing any outsized fortunes that were accumulated by private citizens. This is why wealthy Chinese are continually spiriting their fortunes out of the country. Some just want out. Others want out, but are resentful about having to make this move, and at the principal actor forcing them out. So after they leave, they throw a few coins in the direction of any movement that might make trouble for the Communist Party.

Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man, has moved most, perhaps all, of his money out of China proper, and is selling a hefty chunk of his Hong Kong assets. China’s state media has criticized him as a traitor and frozen him out of Shantou University in Li’s hometown, which he had set up with a $1.2b donation.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3016416/hong-kong-tycoon-li-ka-shings-influence-threatened-shantou

Li’s Chinese counterparts need no reminding that their persons and wealth are always in danger. While many preceded him, many are following in his footsteps. That is the meaning of the large real estate and other investments in the US. A good chunk of it is capital flight - the US is viewed as an investment destination that is least likely to seize their assets and hand it over to the Chinese government on demand. The Chinese government routinely manufactures accusations of corruption to seize private assets. That is how many vast private fortunes ended up in the Communist Party’s coffers. Since Xi Jinping and his coterie of supporters ultimately control the Party, some of those assets ultimately ended up in his pockets. His family was worth $136m *before* he became head honcho. The mind boggles at his family’s net worth today.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/29/china-bloomberg-xi-jinping
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2015970/china-lift-ban-state-owned-firms-buying-bloomberg

Bloomberg said really nice things about Xi Jinping in order to protect his company’s fast-growing Chinese revenues which, at $24,000 per terminal per year and 5,500 Chinese terminals, are easily worth over $100m a year. Did he really mean Xi Jinping wasn’t a dictator? Probably not. Many would have switched subjects. But he also needed to protect his Chinese reporters and access to Chinese news stories. Since then, Bloomberg LP has come out with many negative (and positive) news stories about China. That’s the function of a business news provider - to provide an overall view so investors understand the big economic picture. But he hasn’t gone after Xi directly.