Rumours of an impending break-up of Alibaba have been swirling for a while. Chinese regulators had long been leery of its market power over the online economy, where its interests spanned e-commerce, digital payments, cloud-computing, entertainment and much else besides. The Communist authorities dislike the idea of anything, let alone a large private business, outshining the party. And the country’s leaders bristled at the high profile of Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, an icon of Chinese enterprise who every now and again dared question their decisions.
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