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Alibaba Diplomacy: Jack Ma Says China-U.S. Relations Should Be ‘More Friendly’

The meeting between U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Alibaba chairman Jack Ma on January 9 in New York has got netizens talking. Could Sino-American relations indeed be strengthened through ‘Alibaba diplomacy’?

Manya Koetse

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The meeting between U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Alibaba founder Jack Ma has got Chinese netizens talking. Could Sino-U.S. relations be strengthened through ‘Alibaba diplomacy’?

“Jack and I are going to do great things,” U.S President-elect Donald Trump said after his meeting with Alibaba CEO Jack Ma (马云). The Chinese billionaire immediately added to that: “We are going to focus on small business.”

 

“We think the China-U.S. relationship should be strengthened and should be more friendly.”

 

“It was a productive meeting,” Ma later told the press: “We talked about helping American small businesses to sell things through the Alibaba platform, to China and to Asia.” He further said: “We also think the China-U.S. relationship should be strengthened and should be more friendly.”

Ma called Trump “very smart” and “open-minded”, and indicated that doing business was the path towards stronger Sino-American relations. He also spoke about his plans to create a million jobs in the U.S. by bringing American (agricultural) sellers onto his platform.

The focus on small American business will especially be on the Midwest, with Alibaba facilitating the sales of products like garments, wine or fruits from the U.S. to (Southeast) Asia.

The meeting, that took place in the early morning of January 10 (Beijing time) in the New York Trump Tower, received much attention on Chinese social media, where state media outlets such as People’s Daily reported about the new collaboration.

 

“Jack Ma is one of the few capable Chinese people who can engage in public diplomacy.”

 

In the Chinese Financial Times, Chinas’s Jilin University Foreign Affairs Professor Sun Xingjie (孙兴杰) said that when the traditional foreign diplomacy channels between two countries are somehow strained, it is good to take a different route to kick-start public diplomacy.

“Jack Ma is one of the few capable Chinese people who can engage in public diplomacy,” according to Sun.

The Chinese public opinion towards Trump has been going up and down over the past few months, as I recently also explained on Al Jazeera (see video below).

A generally positive view on Trump when he was elected, shifted to a more negative one after the Taipei phone call and the Fox Interview, in which Trump challenged the One China Policy.

Many called Trump an “idiot” and said he had “zero understanding of how diplomacy works.”

Jack Ma, on the other hand, is the most respected entrepreneur of China. Bookstores have entire sections dedicated to the business magnate, who is not just known as the richest man of China, but also as a welldoer and an influential who keeps, in his own words, “a very good love relationship with the government” (Lee & Song 2016, 33).

 

“Jack Ma should become the Chinese ambassador to the United States.”

 

Could Sino-American relations indeed be strengthened through ‘Alibaba diplomacy’? For now, it seems that the Chinese government supports the Trump-Ma meeting.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang responded to the Trump-Ma meeting on Wednesday, saying that China-US trade relations are mutually beneficial and that the potential of successful flourishing cooperations between the two biggest economic powers in the world is “enormous.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated it strongly encourages the strengthening of Sino-American cooperations.

Some netizens wondered what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to do with Jack Ma’s Trump meeting at all, but many found the relevance of the meeting for bilateral relations indisputable: “Of course this is relevant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs!” some responded, with others even suggesting that Jack Ma should become the Chinese ambassador to the United States.

Many commenters responded to the Trump-Ma meeting with the Chinese idiom “yī mǎ píng chuān” (一马平川), “a horse galloping straight across the flat land”, which means that everything goes smoothly and that there are no boundaries or hurdles.

But the idiom also is a word joke, as it contains the characters of the Chinese names of Trump (川) and Ma (马: literally ‘horse’), which would change the idiom’s meaning to: “Ma galloping straight across Trump”, meaning Jack Ma could knock out Trump in one hit.

 

“When you eat dumplings you need garlic sauce, when you deal with Trump you need Jack Ma.”

 

Different from last December, Weibo users hardly spoke ill of Trump now. Instead, they expressed their admiration for Ma – not just because of his successful business but also because of his English proficiency: “He should become the head of the Foreign Trade Office, he needs no translators, brings his own money, and can speak his mind without needing anyone else,” one commenter says.

Many Chinese web users seemed to take pride in Ma’s meeting with the President-elect. “Ma Yun [Jack Ma] for president!” was a much recurring phrase.

Despite the general positive mood about the Trump-Ma meeting, not all people were happy about it. Some called Ma a traitor to his country. “It’s nice that Jack Ma has said that he would create a million new jobs,” one person responded: “It is just a pity it is not in China.”

But many did see the benefit of taking the Alibaba route in creating friendlier Sino-U.S. relations: “Different situations call for different measures,” one Weibo user from Shandong stated: “When you eat dumplings you need garlic sauce, when you deal with a businessman [like Trump] you need Jack Ma.”

Trump’s pragmatism, unconventionality, and his business background were one of the reasons why many Chinese netizens took a liking to him. Many seem to think that a businessman like Trump also needs a different kind of diplomatic approach – and that Jack Ma is the right person to do it.

 

“Born in China but created for the world.”

 

While Chinese bloggers jokingly call Ma China’s “special ambassador” (特使), Jack Ma’s meeting with Trump ultimately is not a political move but a commercial one.

A closer cooperation with the United States would further strengthen the Alibaba brand, which was created in China with the idea that everyone, no matter where, could be an online seller.

Within China, this has come true with the success of e-commerce platforms like Taobao and Tmall.

But one of the Alibaba slogans states that the brand is “born in China but created for the world,” and thus Ma wants Alibaba to be a stronger international platform.

Alibaba’s promotional video below shows that the platform has boundless international ambitions, with rural families from China now being able to buy fresh fish from New Zealand through Tmall and even having the option to dispatch a New Zealand chef to come and cook it for them.

Tying more American small businesses to Alibaba would further internationalize Alibaba and open up a larger market for Chinese and Asian consumers.

In the end, this might be good for China-U.S. relations, but above all, it is good for Alibaba. When it also serves a diplomatic goal in doing so, it is just killing two birds with one stone; like getting the dumplings with the garlic sauce, and eating them together with Trump.

– By Manya Koetse
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References

Lee, Suk and Bob Song. 2016. Never Give Up: Jack Ma In His Own Words. Chicago: B2 Books.

©2016 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

Manya is the founder and editor-in-chief of What's on Weibo, offering independent analysis of social trends, online media, and digital culture in China for over a decade. Subscribe to gain access to content, including the Weibo Watch newsletter, which provides deeper insights into the China trends that matter. More about Manya at manyakoetse.com or follow on X.

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China Arts & Entertainment

How K-pop Fans and the 13-Year-Old Daughter of Baidu VP Sparked a Debate on Online Privacy

What began as K-pop fan outrage targeting a snarky commenter quickly escalated into a Baidu-linked scandal and a broader conversation about data privacy on Chinese social media.

Ruixin Zhang

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For an ordinary person with just a few followers, a Weibo account can sometimes be like a refuge from real life—almost like a private space on a public platform—where, along with millions of others, they can express dissatisfaction about daily annoyances or vent frustration about personal life situations.

But over recent years, even the most ordinary social media users could become victims of “opening the box” (开盒 kāihé)—the Chinese internet term for doxxing, meaning the deliberate leaking of personal information to expose or harass someone online.

 
A K-pop Fan-Led Online Witch Hunt
 

On March 12, a Chinese social media account focusing on K-pop content, Yuanqi Taopu Xuanshou (@元气桃浦选手), posted about Jang Wonyoung, a popular member of the Korean girl group IVE. As the South Korean singer and model attended Paris Fashion Week and then flew back the same day, the account suggested she was on a “crazy schedule.”

In the comment section, one female Weibo user nicknamed “Charihe” replied:

💬 “It’s a 12-hour flight and it’s not like she’s flying the plane herself. Isn’t sleeping in business class considered resting? Who says she can’t rest? What are you actually talking about by calling this a ‘crazy schedule’..

Although the comment may have come across as a bit snarky, it was generally lighthearted and harmless. Yet unexpectedly, it brought disaster upon her.

That very evening, the woman nicknamed Charihe was bombarded with direct messages filled with insults from fans of Jang Wonyoung and IVE.

Ironically, Charihe’s profile showed she was anything but a hater of the pop star—her Weibo page included multiple posts praising Wonyoung’s beauty and charm. But that context was ignored by overzealous fans, who combed through her social media accounts looking for other posts to criticize, framing her as a terrible person.

After discovering through Charihe’s account that she was pregnant, Jang Wonyoung’s fans escalated their attacks by targeting her unborn child with insults.

The harassment did not stop there. Around midnight, fans doxxed Charihe, exposing her personal information, workplace, and the contact details of her family and friends. Her friends were flooded with messages, and some were even targeted at their workplaces.

Then, they tracked down Charihe’s husband’s WeChat account, sent him screenshots of her posts, and encouraged him to “physically punish” her.

The extremity of the online harassment finally drew backlash from netizens, who expressed concern for this ordinary pregnant woman’s situation:

💬 “Her entire life was exposed to people she never wanted to know about.”

💬 “Suffering this kind of attack during pregnancy is truly an undeserved disaster.

Despite condemnation of the hate, some extreme self-proclaimed “fans” remained relentless in the online witch hunt against Charihe.

 
Baidu Takes a Hit After VP’s 13-Year-Old Daughter Is Exposed
 

One female fan, nicknamed “YourEyes” (@你的眼眸是世界上最小的湖泊), soon started doxxing commenters who had defended her. The speed and efficiency of these attacks left many stunned at just how easy it apparently is to trace social media users and doxx them.

Digging into old Weibo posts from the “YourEyes” account, people found she had repeatedly doxxed people on social media since last year, using various alt accounts.

She had previously also shared information claiming to study in Canada and boasted about her father’s monthly salary of 220,000 RMB (approx. $30.3K), along with a photo of a confirmation document.

Piecing together the clues, online sleuths finally identified her as the daughter of Xie Guangjun (谢广军), Vice President of Baidu.

From an online hate campaign against an innocent, snarky commenter, the case then became a headline in Chinese state media, and even made international headlines, after it was confirmed that the user “YourEyes”—who had been so quick to dig up others’ personal details—was in fact the 13-year-old daughter of Xie Guangjun, vice president at one of China’s biggest tech giants.

On March 17, Xie Guangjun posted the following apology to his WeChat Moments:

💬 “Recently, my 13-year-old daughter got into an online dispute. Losing control of her emotions, she published other people’s private information from overseas social platforms onto her own account. This led to her own personal information also getting exposed, triggering widespread negative discussion.

As her father, I failed to detect the problem in time and failed to guide her in how to properly handle the situation. I did not teach her the importance of respecting and protecting the privacy of others and of herself, for which I feel deep regret.

In response to this incident, I have communicated with my daughter and sternly criticized her actions. I hereby sincerely apologize to all friends affected.

As a minor, my daughter’s emotional and cognitive maturity is still developing. In a moment of impulsiveness, she made a wrong decision that hurt others and, at the same time, found herself caught in a storm of controversy that has subjected her to pressure and distress far beyond her age.

Here, I respectfully ask everyone to stop spreading related content and to give her the opportunity to correct her mistakes and grow.

Once again, I extend my apologies, and I sincerely thank everyone for your understanding and kindness.

The public response to Xie’s apology has been largely negative. Many criticized the fact that it was posted privately on WeChat Moments rather than shared on a public platform like Weibo. Some dismissed the statement as an attempt to pacify Baidu shareholders and colleagues rather than take real accountability.

Netizens also pointed out that the apology avoided addressing the core issue of doxxing. Concerns were raised about whether Xie’s position at Baidu—and potential access to sensitive information—may have helped his daughter acquire the data she used to doxx others.

Adding fuel to the speculation were past conversations allegedly involving one of @YourEyes’ alt accounts. In one exchange, when asked “Who are you doxxing next?” she replied, “My parents provided the info,” with a friend adding, “The Baidu database can doxx your entire family.”

Following an internal investigation, Baidu’s head of security, Chen Yang (陈洋), stated on the company’s internal forum that Xie Guangjun’s daughter did not obtain data from Baidu but from “overseas sources.”

However, this clarification did little to reassure the public—and Baidu’s reputation has taken a hit. The company has faced prior scandals, most notably a the 2016 controversy over profiting from misleading medical advertisements.

 
Online Vulnerability
 

Beyond Baidu’s involvement, the incident reignited wider concerns about online privacy in China. “Even if it didn’t come from Baidu,” one user wrote, “the fact that a 13-year-old can access such personal information about strangers is terrifying.”

Using the hashtag “Reporter buys own confidential data” (#记者买到了自己的秘密#), Chinese media outlet Southern Metropolis Daily (@南方都市报) recently reported that China’s gray market for personal data has grown significantly. For just 300 RMB ($41), their journalist was able to purchase their own household registration data.

Further investigation uncovered underground networks that claim to cooperate with police, offering a “70-30 profit split” on data transactions.

These illegal data practices are not just connected to doxxing but also to widespread online fraud.

In response, some netizens have begun sharing guides on how to protect oneself from doxxing. For example, they recommend people disable phone number search on apps like WeChat and Alipay, hide their real name in settings, and avoid adding strangers, especially if they are active in fan communities.

Amid the chaos, K-pop fan wars continue to rage online. But some voices—such as influencer Jingzai (@一个特别虚荣的人)—have pointed out that the real issue isn’t fandom, but the deeper problem of data security.

💬 “You should question Baidu, question the telecom giants, question the government, and only then, fight over which fan group started this.

As for ‘Charihe,’ whose comment sparked it all—her account is now gone. Her username has become a hashtag. For some, it’s still a target for online abuse. For others, it is a reminder of just how vulnerable every user is in a world where digital privacy is far from guaranteed.

By Ruixin Zhang

Independently covering digital China for over a decade. Like what we do? Support us and get the story behind the hashtag by subscribing:

edited for clarity by Manya Koetse

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2024 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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China Digital

Chinese Netizens Turn to Tim Cook Over Battery Factory’s Illegal Overtime

Is turning to Western suppliers an effective way for workers to pressure domestic companies into complying with labor laws?

Manya Koetse

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🇨🇳 CHINA TRENDING WEEK 12: WHAT’S ON WEIBO SHORTS
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Recently, Chinese netizens have started reaching out to Apple and its CEO Tim Cook in order to put pressure on a state-owned battery factory accused of violating labor laws.

The controversy involves the Huizhou factory of Desay Battery (德赛电池), known for producing lithium batteries for the high-end smartphone market, including Apple and Samsung. The factory caught netizens’ attention after a worker exposed in a video that his superiors were deducting three days of wages because he worked an 8-hour shift instead of the company’s “mandatory 10-hour on-duty.” Compulsory overtime violates China’s labor laws.

In response, the worker and other netizens started to let Apple know about the situation through email and social media, trying to put pressure on the factory by highlighting its position in the Apple supply chain. In at least one instance, Apple confirmed receipt of the complaint. (Meanwhile, on Tim Cook’s official Weibo account, the comment section underneath his most recent post is clearly being censored.)

Screenshot of replies on X underneath a post by Tim Cook on International Women’s Day.

The factory, however, has denied the allegations, , claiming that the video creator was spreading untruths and that they had reported him to authorities. His content has since also been removed. A staff member at Desay Battery maintained that they adhere to the 8-hour workday and appropriately compensate workers for overtime.

At the same time, Desay Battery issued an official statement, admitting to “management oversights regarding employee rights protection” (“保障员工权益的管理上存在疏漏”) and promising to do better in safeguarding employee rights.

One NetEase account (大风文字) suggested that for Chinese workers to effectively expose labor violations, reporting them to Western suppliers or EU regulators is an effective way to force domestic companies to respect labor laws.

Another commentary channel (上峰视点) was less optimistic about the effectiveness, arguing that companies like Apple would be quick to drop suppliers over product quality issues but more willing to turn a blind eye to labor violations—since cheap labor remains a key competitive advantage in Chinese manufacturing.

By Manya Koetse

(follow on X, LinkedIn, or Instagram)

 

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2025 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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