By Jeff J. Brown
Pictured above left: a caricature of billionaire Jack Ma, urging on his army of red flag carrying companies, like Alipay, Taobao and T-Mall. Jack is a communist-capitalist, a rare specimen outside China, but very common here. On the right is Jesus Christ. The real Jesus was a communist-socialist. That’s why the elites of his day made an example of him and very publicly killed him. Ditto John F. Kennedy. They blew his brains out in broad daylight in Dallas’ Dealey Square to send us a message: they own us, the system and we are powerless to be free. Our Western owners have massacred and murdered millions of like-minded people in the interim, and still ongoing.
In Book #2 of The China Trilogy, (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/05/19/the-china-trilogy/) China Rising, I wrote about Jack Ma. The chapter was headed with the above image on the left. I was impressed with him then and even more so now.
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This week, Chinese multibillionaire Alibaba Group founder, Jack Ma announced that he is establishing a ¥10 billion (US$1.5 billion) Alibaba Poverty Relief Fund, with the money to be donated over the next five years. This is not Bill Gates and Warren Buffett selectively doling out donations to their pet causes, while everybody else gets their hands dirty. Mr. Ma is assigning Alibaba’s top executives to lead a targeted program that will help rural Chinese stay home, rather than having to abandon their loved ones and migrate to the cities for work. He stated,
I hope farmers won’t have to leave their villages and they can instead become agricultural workers or forestry workers. I think they should return to the land… and develop their business.
Everyone working at Alibaba and its 36 partner companies will be expected to join the cause. All company executives will be tasked with programs for education, women’s poverty relief, creating market channels for rural products from poverty stricken areas, as well as initiatives harmonizing environmental protection and poverty elimination (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2122521/alibaba-launches-us15-billion-fund-help-fight-poverty-china).
And here’s the kicker:
All of them will have this poverty work included in their performance evaluations!
Well, slap me up the side of the head, Buford. Can you imagine any Western Fortune 500 company doing the same thing? I agree with you. I can’t either, and this striking contrast is just screaming in our ears.
Not only that, but most of the money is going to be provided by Alibaba’s 36 partners and their workers, with the balance coming from the Alibaba Foundation, which is Jack’s cash. Talk about walking the walk. You want to work with Mr. Ma? Then be prepared to commit yourself to the betterment of society and giving its least fortunate souls a helping hand, as well as tithing to such a noble cause.
In Xi Jinping’s 19th Communist Party Congress speech, he said that the affluent of China’s economy will contribute more, in order to spread the country’s wealth across all levels of society. Baba Beijing has also been working tirelessly over the last four years to not just reduce, but eliminate extreme poverty in the country by 2020, and is on schedule to do so (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/10/29/october-18th-2017-is-world-cd-day-when-baba-beijing-declared-war-on-western-capitalism-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171029/). While communist-socialist China is pulling tens of millions of its citizens from the bottom of the socioeconomic barrel, the capitalist West is following its Marxist-Leninist predicted trajectory, by driving millions down into the hopeless abyss of poverty (https://www.rt.com/uk/411842-children-poverty-tory-austerity/).
Jack Ma is rich man, a very rich man. He knows that he got to where he is today, as well as every other prosperous person in China, thanks to the Communist Party of China (CPC) and its communist-socialist economic model (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/10/25/how-can-western-capitalism-beat-this-thats-the-rub-it-cant-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171022/). During the same aforementioned Alibaba meeting last week, Mr. Ma said exactly that (https://technode.com/2017/11/30/jack-ma-praises-chinese-government-says-the-era-of-guanxi-is-over-in-china/ and http://tech.163.com/17/1129/23/D4EP3UDD00097U7R.html [in Chinese]),
No other country in the world has such an environment. Democrats always say how bad Republicans are, Republicans always say Democrats are not good and neither improves their own party. Only the Chinese Communist Party has made self-improvement and self-innovation a top priority in the past five years, making China’s clean government work, like no other nation in the world [This constant drive to improve and innovate the CPC actually goes all the way back to its founding in 1921 – read Book #3 of The China Trilogy (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/05/19/the-china-trilogy/), China Is Communist, Dammit!].
Our country is also the safest place in the world. The security of the country and the common people is thanks to political stability and social security, which I feel very deeply about. The economy as a whole is still growing by more than 6%, which makes the business environment in this country the best.
Entrepreneurs are looking at numerous opportunities today. Internationally, One Belt One Road has brought great potential to businesspeople. At home, opening up the supply-side structural reforms has brought great opportunities to everyone.
Jack Ma is happy to humbly thank Baba Beijing for his commercial success. Hear, hear! I concur, Sir Jack. Maybe now, you can appreciate why I don’t really want to live anywhere else.
Mr. Ma has always talked about the need of businesses to work for the benefit of society and that companies have a moral responsibility to share in their success. China’s drive to make its people prosperous, safe and secure started full on in 1949 (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/09/12/mao-zedong-died-this-day-in-1976-china-rising-radio-sinoland-170909/ and http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/10/01/chinas-communist-liberation-on-october-1st-1949-changed-the-world-forever-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171001/), with Mao Zedong and every Chinese leader since, through to President Xi Jinping today, has been committed to the same goals. Jack Ma is especially inspired by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, saying,
Without Deng Xiaoping, we would not be here today. Deng called on the people who got rich sooner to help others who are still poor. Now that we are rich today, we should fulfil this commitment and help more people prosper.
President Xi’s 19th Party Congress speech has apparently been required reading at Alibaba. Ma also said (bold text will be discussed below),
For the future of our business, we really want to understand our government’s policies. I have read the 19th Party Congress reports many times, as have our company’s various departments. I did this to ask a question: What we can do to implement the 19th Party Congress’ directives? The anti-corruption campaign and poverty alleviation are both idealistic, so we’ve decided to make our contribution to achieving the goal of wiping out poverty.
The challenges of the future: the first is the technology challenge for every company, one that surpasses your imagination. Second, the ways and means of doing business today must be reformed, and we should earnestly look at the two main contradictions discussed at the 19th National Congress, that is, imbalance and inadequacy. In particular, we should give priority to imbalance. There is an imbalance in the economic structure, an imbalance in the environment, the imbalance between the rich and the poor, the imbalances between the regions and then there is inadequacy.
Past globalization saw 60,000 big companies that went by the wayside and which were consolidated by developed countries and their large corporations. As a result, they have plundered their resources and plundered low-cost and labor forces all over the world, leading to strong opposition everywhere to this kind of globalization. The current round of globalization and One Belt One Road are being launched by China and are for developing countries. It should be for the benefit of all humankind, creating jobs for the local people and creating tax revenue. So only in this way can you benefit from this round of globalization.
If you want to be global today, you cannot expect to be a success tomorrow. You have to prepare for at least a decade. Alibaba probably spent three years building a global team, and now moving forward, it will take us about 12 years to turn Alibaba into a globalized company. This is the long view of doing business. To do any business, especially small businesses, do not think you will succeed tomorrow. Rapid success is bound to quickly perish. Easy come easy go.
The Chinese like low-key people, not showoffs. A person’s character determines their fate, and it is no different for me. My first job was being a public school teacher and teachers like to share. I did not get any commercial training. I was just a part time entrepreneur while I was teaching. Teachers want all their students to surpass themselves.
Anyway, I hope I have a little happiness, especially since if I am happier, then my colleagues will be happier too. For my thoughts on making others better, now that I have money, I naturally want to do some good things, because you are not going to always succeed and it is impossible to have money forever. From the first day I founded my company, I had these ideas and have never changed. That first day, you have to decide if you want to sleep well at night. You really only have that first day to establish these things, which are the most crucial. Because if you cannot sleep well at night, then there will be big trouble.
The above, highlighted bold texts are revolutionary in their potential to change the world for the betterment of all peoples – including you and me.
The ways and means of doing business today must be reformed is stating that the capitalist model of domination, extraction and exploitation must stop. Doing business can be mutually beneficial to the shareholders, employees, the world’s 7.3 billion citizens and their environments. War, genocide and ecological desecration are not prerequisites to financial success.
If the above model is heeded, then the imbalance in the economic structure, an imbalance in the environment, the imbalance between the rich and the poor (and) the imbalances between the regions are solved overnight, since business would be conducted with China’s historical win-win cooperation in trade and diplomacy.
Past globalization saw 60,000 big companies that went by the wayside and which were consolidated by developed countries and their large corporations, is simply stating the truth. Bretton Woods, the IMF, World Bank, GATT and WTO (as well as regional trade treaties like NAFTA) were written by Western empire for the benefit of its capitalist owners. Everyone else can go to hell.
As a result, they have plundered their resources and plundered low-costs and labor forces all over the world, leading to strong opposition everywhere to this kind of globalization. If you are a fan of China Rising Radio Sinoland and The China Trilogy, you know I have been writing and saying the same thing for years. This is what advanced capitalism always does, especially under the mantle of global empire. The 85% of the world’s non-West people have paid a very heavy price in blood and treasure, since 1492. They have a right to be royally pissed off, indignant and demanding change.
The current round of globalization and One Belt One Road are being launched by China and are for developing countries. It should be for the benefit of all mankind, creating jobs for the local people and creating tax revenue. So only in this way can you benefit from this round of globalization. Mr. Ma is telling the world that there’s new hope for a fairer, more just vision in the 21st century, and China is the torch bearer, humanity’s global Soul Man. Thank heavens, for Baba Beijing, is all I can say.
In a nutshell, Xi Jinping announced in his congress speech that with communism-socialism, the Chinese can have their cake and eat it to: wealth, security, safety, fairness, equality and socioeconomic harmony. Jack Ma is telling the rest of the world’s companies that if they walk the walk like Alibaba, then globalization can put cake on everyone’s table too.
Jack Ma rejects America’s Greed is God-I Want It All or Else credo. He believes in and supports communism-socialism and it has served him very well. You will never hear Western capitalists talking like Jack Ma and certainly not walking the walk. They can’t think past the next quarterly report and cannibalizing society to boost their stock options. If Baba Beijing is the Soul Man of hope in diplomacy and governance, then Mr. Ma is our Soul Man of reason in the business world.
Ma’s comments that if he is happier, then his colleagues will also be happier, is very Buddhist-Daoist-Confucian. Some would call it karma. His comments about sleeping well hark back to my interview with Jason Hirthler (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/11/26/freedom-101-jason-hirthler-and-jeff-j-brown-share-their-stories-of-hope-on-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171126/), where I mentioned that the French have a wonderful proverb,
A clear conscience makes a soft pillow.
I daresay communist-capitalist Jack Ma sleeps very well at night. Communist-socialist Jesus Christ surely did too. As did communist-socialist Mohammed, communist-socialist Buddha, communist-socialist Mahatma Gandhi, communist-socialist Martin Luther King, Jr., communist-socialist Albert Einstein – this list is very long, although it is parsed, rationalized or just plain censored in Western propaganda.
To celebrate Baba Beijing’s and Jack Ma’s visionary hope for all 21st century citizens – every last one of us – and not just the 1%, let’s hit the global dance floor together to groove, shout and clap to Sam and Dave’s infectious I’m a Soul Man. Your choice: the 1967 studio version or a rocking live clip from the same year. The live version is a great American history lesson, as the all-black Stax Band plays in front of an all-white audience, except one brother on the front row, who was probably their manager (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2015/10/01/slavs-and-the-yellow-peril-are-niggers-brutes-and-beasts-in-the-eyes-of-western-empire-the-saker-44-days-radio-sinoland-2015-10-1/). And how about the wall of brass jiving behind Sam and Dave? I feel very privileged to have grown up in that era of music. It was special.
Studio:
Live:
Side note: in attendance at Jack’s big confab in Hangzhou, China were Alibaba’s 36 partners (http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2122521/alibaba-launches-us15-billion-fund-help-fight-poverty-china. The mood was optimistic and inspiring. Taobao, Alibaba’s Amazon + eBay equivalent had just shattered last years’ Singles Day online sales extravaganza, pulling in a record US$25 billion, during the 24-hour period of November 11th (11-11, get it? Singles). This was an eye popping 40% increase over last year, five times as much as America’s 2017 Black Friday and more than twice the US’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined (http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/25/news/black-friday-holiday-shopping-foot-traffic/index.html).
Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society. — Albert Einstein
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JEFF J. BROWN, Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and for Badak Merah, Jeff authored China Is Communist, Dammit! – Dawn of the Red Dynasty (2017). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). He is also currently penning an historical fiction, Red Letters – The Diaries of Xi Jinping, to be published in late 2018. Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on SoundCloud, YouTube, Stitcher Radio and iTunes.
In China, he has been a speaker at TEDx, the Bookworm and Capital M Literary Festivals, the Hutong, as well as being featured in an 18-part series of interviews on Radio Beijing AM774, with former BBC journalist, Bruce Connolly. He has guest lectured at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and various international schools and universities.
Jeff can be reached at China Rising, je**@br***********.com, Facebook, Twitter and Wechat/Whatsapp: +86-13823544196.
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