Shares in Alibaba – China’s answer to shopping giant Amazon and one of the world’s biggest companies – have fallen by around 25 per cent since October, when founder Ma made critical comments about China’s regulator and state-owned banks. Weeks later, the flotation of Ma’s financial services firm Ant Group was cancelled by the Chinese authorities, just days before it was due to list. Beijing’s competition regulators then launched an investigation into Alibaba.

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