Exclusive | Alibaba’s Jack Ma on China’s economy, Hong Kong and the South China Morning Post: full Q&A

On the South China Morning Post and the media

Now that Alibaba has acquired the South China Morning Post, what is your vision for the paper? What role do you see the Post playing?

We are very excited that we can take part in the future development of the South China Morning Post. The Post is a great media outlet – one of the best in Hong Kong. When Mr [Robert] Kuok took over, it became one of the top media in Asia. What Alibaba wants to do is to make it a global media outlet through our technology and resources. Asia is changing and China is changing. The Post will have great opportunities. With its access to Alibaba’s resources, data and all the relationships in our ecosystem, the Post can report on Asia and China more accurately compared with other media that have no such access. If the Post can play the role of a connector between the West and the East, I have confidence in the paper’s future success.

Alibaba said the Post should offer readers a narrative of China that is different from that offered by other Western media. What narrative will this be?

I think first of all, it is important to be fair to the reader. Readers have the right to know what’s happening in China in a factual and objective way. I’m lucky that I have the opportunity to travel around the world. The more I come to know about the outside world’s perception of China, the more I feel there are all sorts of misunderstandings and, to a certain extent, people do not get the full picture from the media. A lot of foreigners have few opportunities to visit China, and a lot of Chinese people do not have the chance to go to Europe or to the West. There is an immediate opportunity for us to bridge this gap as a responsible media outlet. What a publication can do is to help people get a clearer picture without jumping to any rash conclusion. I’m very happy that the Post can take the responsibility to report on China in a broader and deeper way. I believe the Post must be fair to our readers. We should let our readers see China from more angles and perspectives.

WATCH: Jack Ma of Alibaba says “we should be fair to our readers” when reporting on China

Some commentators reacted to the statement by speculating that it means the Post’s China coverage will become more positive or even gloss over some tough issues confronting China. What would you say to these speculations?