Upbeat now Ma's back in the picture

Legendary billionaire Jack Ma Yun has apparently concluded his extended travel abroad following conflicting reports over his recent whereabouts.

Ma's public appearance in Hangzhou's Yungu School was revealed in a post on the school's WeChat account on Monday and subsequently carried by state media, including Global Times.

The school made the revelation shortly after a Bloomberg report that Chinese government officials had been trying to persuade Ma to return to the country in a show of official support for private enterprises and entrepreneurs, but said he reportedly turned down the request several times.

It is curious. On one hand, Ma is undoubtedly in the mainland and his showing up at the school after roughly a year of self-styled lengthy travel in Spain, Japan and Thailand crushed the Bloomberg report because a nice photo speaks louder than a thousand words.

On the other hand, the two stories may not necessarily conflict with each other but could be merely episodes reflecting developments at different stages.

After the central economic work conference resolved in December to extend an olive branch to private enterprises that had been suffering bitterly from years of periodic lockdowns under the zero-Covid policy and regulatory crackdowns, it made sense for the central authorities to release a signal to restore confidence in the private sector.

In this respect, nothing could be more iconic than Ma ending his de-facto self-exile to return to China.

It is unlikely that the Bloomberg reporter invented the story. Rather, it could be someone feeding the news agency with the information - only that the information was not an updated account of Ma's latest movements.

Were the two episodes to be read together, the development would have been like this: in an olive-branch gesture, representatives of the central government had multiple contacts with Ma to invite him to end his travels and return to the mainland.

Both sides conducted discussions. Ma disagreed initially but changed his mind later after certain conditions were met.

The outcome is that he appeared in China for the first time since last year. At the school, he eloquently spoke about the important role of artificial intelligence in the new digital era.

In his opinion, ChatGPT is only the beginning of this era. Ma, a former teacher, warned that mankind must not forget its heart because it is this heart that makes us distinct from machines that have only chips.

So, which of these narratives makes better sense?

Having moved away from the center of Alibaba and ceded his control over the financial-technology company Ant Group earlier this year, Ma's link with Alibaba's operation has become remote and is now more in name only.

Despite that, Ma's brand is still of great value. Small wonder, then, that the local financial market reacted favorably to Yungu School's post.

In Hong Kong, Alibaba initially climbed more than 3 percent on the news of Ma's public appearance in Hangzhou before closing down by 0.1 percent.

Perhaps investors are still monitoring the development.