Jack Ma, founder of the Alibaba e-commerce giant, and one of the richest men in China, returned home this week after spending months abroad.
In what is surely no coincidence, Alibaba a day later announced that it was restructuring, breaking the conglomerate into six business units in an effort to unlock the company’s economic potential.
Also this week, Ma Ying-jeou, from Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Party, was in China, becoming the first sitting or former Taiwanese president to visit the mainland. By most accounts, Ma’s trip is intended to burnish his legacy. The two visits offer insight into the Chinese leadership’s thinking about potential challenges. Neither is encouraging.