Jack Ma says it’s his responsibility to let Alibaba go, warns of protracted US-China trade war

After Alibaba Group executive chairman Jack Ma announced a week ago that he will hand over the chairmanship to chief executive Daniel Zhang in a year’s time as part of succession planning, he received calls from all over the world.

Some asked whether he was crazy, stricken with disease, being brought down by the government, scared of the US-China trade war, or even whether “something like Minnesota is happening,” Ma said at the company’s annual investor event on Tuesday in Hangzhou, possibly referring to the arrest of JD.com founder Richard Liu Qiangdong in Minnesota on a rape accusation.