Alibaba ordered to sell its media assets

China, 16th March: The Alibaba Group, China’s largest e-commerce company, has been ordered to sell its media assets, including The South China Morning Post (SCMP). This appears to be more fallout from an incident that occurred late last year when Jack Ma criticised China’s regulators and infuriated China’s president, Xi Jinping.

Ma disappeared from view for several months and the group’s planned IPO of its subsidiary, the ANT Group, was shelved. Now Beijing wants to further muzzle Alibaba ordering the e-commerce giant to off all its media assets including The South China Morning Post. Officially, Beijing is concerned about Alibaba’s “influence over public opinion in China.”