Four years ago, Jack Ma was the embodiment of China’s spectacular economic rise. ... By 2014, Mr. Ma had become a money-making machine for the country’s political elite.

In November 2023, Jack Ma posted an internal memo at Alibaba, urging the e-commerce giant he helped create to "correct its course." The message was as a rallying cry by one of China's most ...

Xiao Jianhua, left, now serving a 13-year sentence, with Jack Ma, center, at a party about a decade ago. ... But the couple paid for it with money from one of Mr. Xiao’s companies.